


Alexander, Eliza, and John

by ElpidiaHope



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: George WashingDad, Hamliza, Lams - Freeform, Multi, Violence eventually, elams
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-23
Updated: 2017-09-25
Packaged: 2018-11-18 05:10:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 25,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11284350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElpidiaHope/pseuds/ElpidiaHope
Summary: A modern high school au. Alex is dating Eliza, but a certain John catches their eye. As they go through drama along with friends and enemies, Alex sends John anonymous love notes. But of course, like the musical, other issues come up than just relationships.





	1. My Name is Alexander Hamilton!

“This is it!” Alex cheered, pumping his fist into the air. “New school! New people! Can you just imagine, Eliza?” Eliza, used to Alex’s rambling, hummed in agreement. “This school’s got more funding, too, so there’ll be better supplies! I hope the teachers are alright… Eliza! Can you believe we’re finally freshmen?”

“Nope,” She smiled, “But I’m glad we’re not middle schoolers, anymore.”

“I’m just glad you and your sisters were switching, too,” Alexander sighed, “It would have been harder if I didn’t know anyone…”

“I’m sure you’d make an impression, Alexander,” Eliza commented.

“Hey, what’s that supposed to mean?” Alex said in playful defence.

“You are… Outgoing. I’m sure you’ll make friends.” Alexander shrugged.

“The real problem is- uh- keeping them,” Alex mumbled. Eliza put a hand on his shoulder.

“Alexander.” She grabbed his other shoulder and made him look at her. “You are bright, witty, and can talk a million miles a minute. If you don’t make a single friend today, I will give you twenty dollars.”

“Well, how motivating,” He deadpanned. She shoved him gently away.

“Not the point.” Alex half smiled.

“Thanks, Betsey. I bet you’ll make a ton of friends.”

“If Angelica doesn’t scare people off, yeah.” The two walk into the school. Children are buzzing with energy, the echo of the halls making it seem louder, people were rushing with schedules in their hands, teachers were fast walking with coffee and clipboards, people were skipping steps on the stairs, Alexander felt at home. Eliza kissed him on the cheek and sped for the basement, where her first class was.

Alexander trotted to the stairs, his first class on the second floor, but the ceilings were high and there were a lot of stairs. Alex felt the energy of the first day flowing through his veins, he was smiling as he walked to his first class. Alex walked into the class on U.S. History. The reason he’d switched was because his new foster father, George, had gotten a new teaching job. Not that Alex minded, he loved new places.

Alex placed his backpack in a second row seat and went up to George. “Hello, ‘Mr. Washington’,” He said in a fancy tone, “You left pretty early, tired yet?” George straightened a folder with papers sticking out.

“Not yet,” He smiled, “but if you’re in this class, I bet I will be.” Alex put a hand on his heart, faking offence. “Go talk to some students, son.”

“Have fun,” Alex said. He turned and saw someone put a bag next to his. Happy, he approached the student. “Hello, there!” The boy turned around, his shirt black and blue plaid. Something about his face was familiar.

“Hi,” He said. Wait!

“Pardon, are you Aaron Burr?” Alex said excitedly.

“Have… We met?” Aaron looked confused.

“No, I follow your blog,” Alex informed, “Sorry, that sounds weird. I just thought it was weird that I was following you and then I met you in school.”

“Oh.” Aaron smiled politely. “Um, cool?”

“I really like the stuff you post, it’s one of the places I go to stay up to date on politics,” Alexander explained, “You do a great job on refraining from a bias.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda the point,” Aaron said, “I’m glad you like it.” The bell rang and Alex and Aaron sat down. Alex pulled out a notebook and a pencil, alert and ready.

It was a fairly uneventful class, mostly introduction, but when it came to the questions, Alexander’s hand was first to shoot up. It was like that for all of his morning classes. Aaron was in his morning classes, and kept giving him quizzical smiles as if Alex was some sort of amusing riddle and Aaron was trying to solve it. But, soon enough, it was time for lunch.

Alex brought his own, so when he got into the lunchroom, he just had to find somewhere to sit. It was surprisingly filled up, and Alex was having a hard time finding anyone. As the minutes passed he became more discouraged when he couldn’t find Eliza or Angelica or Peggy or Aaron, nobody. “Hey! Lost puppy!” Alex swung his head in the direction of the voice, guessing it was directed at him. His eyebrows raised at the tall kid standing on a chair, waving. Alex’s brow furrowed and he pointed at himself, questioningly. “Yeah, you! Get over here!” He almost fell getting down, but did it. The two other people at the table laughed at him.

“Uh, hi?” Alex gave a confused smile.

“Hello, tiny child!” The chair kid greeted.

“Wanna sit here?” A boy with freckles said, hints of a laugh still in his voice. Alex pulled out the last chair and sat, pulling out his lunchbox. “I’m John, welcome to the table.”

“I am Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette.” Alex stared at him blankly. “Most people just call me Lafayette.”

“I’m Hercules,” a boy with a headband said. It was almost comical the length difference of his introduction and Lafayette’s.

“My name is Alexander Hamilton,” He said, “Nice to meet you all.”

“So, were you looking for someone?” John asked.

“He’s new, who’d he be looking for?” Lafayette retorted.

“Actually,” Alex interjected, “I was looking for a fellow transfer. Eliza or her sisters, or both.”

“Eliza…” Hercules trailed off. “Oh! Is she wearing a blue dress?” Alex nodded. “Yeah, she and one of her sisters are in choir with me.”

“What’s she look like?” Alex asked, wondering if it was Peggy or Angelica.

“Red shirt, long hair, really curly, tall-”

“Angelica?” Hercules snapped his fingers.

“Yes! Angelica, that’s it.”

“What’s your elective?” John asked.

“Gym,” Alex said. The group cringed. “What?”

“The gym teacher sucks,” Lafayette complained, “I’m doing sports for my gym credit.” Alex shrugged. He looked over and saw Eliza passing. Excited, he shot up.

“Betsey!” She turned, smiling. Her and her sisters waved.

“Looks like you lost the bet!” She called through the sea of kids, cupping her hands around her mouth.

“I never agreed to that!” He yelled. Peggy laughed and dragged her sisters forward. Alex sat back down, smug.

“What was that?” Hercules asked.

“Betsey?” Lafayette mumbled.

“Uh, nothing,” Alex picked up a can of pop he brought and popped it open, “It’s nothing.”

“What bet?” John asked. Alex rolled his eyes.

“It’s stupid, don’t worry about it.” Alex took a drink. “So, did you guys all go here in middle school?” They nodded. “Can you tell me if it’s a ‘you can’t sit with us’ or a ‘there’s no lunch seating chart’ school?”

“Depends,” John said, “The people who think they’re better than everybody will say you can’t sit with them.”

“Like anybody wants to,” Lafayette snickered, “Most people are pretty alright.”

“There’s always that kind of group, though,” Hercules sighed. “So, Alexander-”

“You can just call me Alex.”

“So, Alex,” Hercules continued, “What brings you to Freedom High?”

“Well, a lot of things,” Alex started, “My foster dad works here, so that’s a reason. It’s also closer, I can just walk or bike. It’s got more money, I mean really! The students get tablets! Not to mention Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy! They were like, the only people I talked to at my middle school, but then again, I only transferred for the second semester of eighth grade, so it makes sense why I… Didn’t meet… Uh, a-anyone.” Alex looked sheepishly at the kids. “Or it could be because I- um- talk too much.”

“Nonsense,” John waved off, “If you got something to say, you should say it!”

“John,” Lafayette smirked, “that method has gotten you into a few fights.”

“Hey, he deserved-” John took a breath “-Nobody should be silenced if they have something to say.”

“I think I like you, John,” Alex announced. The group talked for the rest of lunch, telling stories, jokes, and brief (friendly) arguments. Alex stayed true to his claim of talking a lot, to John’s amusement. But, soon the bell rang, and they had to go back to their classes.

“I think this’ll be my favorite class,” Alex told John as they walked into the class together, “I love writing with a passion!”

“Good,” John grumbled, “Because we are going to get a lot of essays. Alex looked excited. “Oh, hi, Eliza.”

“Hello, John!” She smiled.

“Oh, you guys’ve met?” Alex grinned.

“We have math together with Angie and Peggy,” Eliza said. “Oh, Alexander, no way!”

“What?”

“You’re not wearing the necklace I got you,” She frowned, almost disappointed. Alex whipped his right hand up just as she finished the sentence. Alex had a necklace wrapped around his wrist as a bracelet, a little sun charm dangling from it. Her frown immediately turned into a smile again.

“I told you I’d wear it,” He smiled like a proud child.

“Oh, Eliza has a moon,” John smiled, “That’s so cheesy!”

“It’s cute!” Eliza defended.

“It’s both,” Alex stated.

“Are you taking his side?” Eliza asked in mock anger.

“I believe my statement portrays neutrality,” Alex said, crossing his arms.

“You two wanna sit with me at my table?” Eliza offered, “The teacher will probably stand up soon.” Alex looked to John, who shrugged and smiled in agreement. Just as they sat at the circular group table, the teacher started class. John, Alex, and Eliza prover to all get along quite well, making jokes and all that. Enough that the teacher even got vaguely annoyed and glared at them, but didn’t say anything. Again, Alex was the one raising his hand for everything. Eliza and John made sarcastic eye contact whenever his hand shot into the air.

They also had their next class, Latin, together. Once again, Alex kept raising his hand. He was guessing answers based off his knowledge in French and Spanish, the other two classes the school offered. Alex’s notes in his ipad were filling up since John taught him how to get to it and use his stylus for writing. He somehow was impressing and annoying all his teachers at once.

Alex’s last class was gym, and they were right, the teacher wasn’t that good. Either way, Alex liked the idea of working out every day, staying in shape, all that jazz.

After school, Alex decided to hang out outside with Eliza. He had nothing to do, and since he could just walk, he figured why not? She wasn’t being picked up for twenty minutes or so, anyway. There were some benches in front of the school and some outdoor lunch tables, so he, Angelica, Eliza, and Peggy sat at a table.

“So Peggy, learn anything on the violin, yet?” Angelica asked.

“It’s the first day,” Peggy deadpanned, “We learned that the teacher has been to Greece, though.”

“How relevent,” Alex drawled sarcastically.

“Oh, right!” Eliza clapped her hands together. “So, Alexander… Do I or do I not owe you twenty dollars?” Alex thought on it.

“I do not think so,” he stated.

“What?” Angelica asked.

“I told him that if he didn’t make friends today,” Eliza explained, “I would give him twenty dollars. So, who’d ya meet?”

“Well, John-” Eliza nodded “-Lafayette-”

“Oh! He’s in my orchestra! He’s a cello.”

“Oh, sweet,” Alex said, “Hercules, too, he’s in choir. Uh… Oh! Aaron Burr!”

“The one from the political blog you always talk about?” Eliza asked, amused.

“Yep.” A group of boys walk by in the middle of a discussion.

“I’m just saying, I think he can really make America great again,” a short boy with sandy blonde hair declared. Alexander, the nosy person he was, turned to them as they sat down at a table. “Maybe he can reverse the homo marriage laws. Marriage is supposed to be between one man and one woman, just like the Bible says.”

“Okay,” Alex fully turned to them, “Ignoring the obvious; there are several cases of people having multiple spouses in the Bible.” Eliza nodded. The boy scoffed.

“Name one person,” he said confidently.

“Abraham,” Eliza stated.

“Jacob,” Alex added.

“David,” Eliza added.

“Solomon-” Alex began.

“I get it,” the boy says flatly. “Either way, homosexuals marrying should not be allowed.”

“‘Do not judge, and you will not be judged’,” Alex recited, “What happened to love thy enemy?”

“What are you, a priest?” The boy rolled his eyes.

“Nope. I just only reference books that I have read,” Alex stated. “What’s your name?”

“Samuel Seabury.” He crossed his arms and stuck up his nose.

“I’m Alexander Hamilton.” Eliza’s dad pulled up by the school. The group stood. “Nice to meet you.”


	2. Secret Admirer...s

“Alright, kids,” George said, looking to his clipboard. “I don’t know what the other teachers have told you. How many of you know about the year projects?” About three fourths of the room raise their hand. For once, Alex’s stayed down. “Right. So; each year half the grade is assigned one project, and the other half gets their own. There are individual jobs and positions, and there’s a small section for each class. For history, since this is U.S. History…” George pops the cap off a whiteboard marker and starts writing. “Half of you will be defending the American revolution, and half the grade will be the British loyalists. Well, for this semester, anyway.”

A kid raised their hand. “Um, if we’re already, uh, America, why are we defending or antagonizing something that already happened?”

“Good question,” George smiled, facing the class again, “Have you ever heard the phrase: ‘those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it’? I want you all to learn, in depth, about these people and this era. The revolution sparked all kinds of brilliant minds. Books, battles, fights, it’s all a lot more interesting than the books portray.” George put his hands on his hips. “I want you all to actually be interested. We imagine these people as proper gentlemen, but many resorted to petty insults and getting into fights. They aren’t just… statues in a park.”

Alexander really liked how he phrased that, and like always, was taking notes. “At one point- well, this was post the revolution- but one person fought nearly every member of congress, even dissing himself. But, that’s for next semester. Today, we break everyone into the groups. Rebels and Loyalists.” Alex raised his hand. “Yes?”

“Do we begin work on the project today?”

“This week, just look over the information we will email you and think on what you’d like to do. We’ll go from there.” Alex was already excited.

Alex found out that he had his next class, Math, with Lafayette. Lafayette, of course, already knew due to the fact that Alex never really… How do you say… Shut up. It was a really boring class, so Lafayette was glad he had someone to make weird faces at all class, trying to get Alex to laugh. Alex could keep a straight face if he really wanted to, though, so it pretty much just ended up disappointing Lafayette.

During one of the louder moments in class, Alex and Lafayette decided, vaguely, to sit at a larger table so the Schuylers could sit with them.

At lunch, Alex zipped over to snag a table. Peggy already knew, so she was going to tell her sisters and John since they all had the math class after Alex. Lafayette had the class before with Hercules, so everybody knew. Alex stood proudly by the table he got before anyone else, looking around for a friend so it didn’t look like he was sitting alone. Soon enough, Eliza’s group walked up to him.

“Hey, Alex,” John greeted, sitting in front of him. Alex smiled.

“Hello, Alexander,” Eliza said, sitting next to him. Everyone filled up the table around him, and for the first time in his life, Alex had a big group of friends to talk to. “So-” Eliza grabbed Alex’s face and directed it to John “-Do you notice anything different about John?” Eliza squishing his face, Alex looked at John, looking for a tiny detail.

Alex, instead of something different, felt something different. Now that he really looked at him, Alex found John attractive. “Well?” Eliza asked.

“Uh, I give up,” Alex stated.

“You’re no fun, Alex,” John complained, “I got my ears pierced!” Oh, so he had. He had black circles on his ears.

“Oh!” Eliza let go of his face. “They look really nice, John!”

“Thank you.” Lafayette turned to him.

“Oooh, they do look good!” He complimented. Alex found himself zoning out, particularly in John’s direction.

Eliza shoved him gently. “Whatcha thinkn’ about?” Alex smiled at her.

“Nothing.” She pouted.

“Liar.”

“Later,” Alex started, poking her forehead. She snickered and turned to Angelica. Alex smiled and started to eat his lunch. He enjoyed the buzz of laughter and conversation. Alex liked when the atmosphere was filled with life and happiness. He jerked out of his trance at the smack of a folder on the table.

“You forgot this yesterday, Hamilton,” Samuel stated dully.

“Oh, thank you,” he said, snatching it away, “How silly of me. I suppose I was distracted.” He smirked at Samuel who glared right back.

“Whatever.” He turned on his heel and stomped away like a small child.

“What was that about?” John asked him. Alex opened an applesauce container.

“He was talkn’ shit about the lgbtq community yesterday,” Alex said, “So, I talked shit back.”

“Nice,” Lafayette chimed in before going back to his other conversation.

“As a bi,” Alex dramatically put his hand on his forehead, “I was very offended.”

“Oh, I was pretty sure that’s what the bracelet was for,” John said, nodding to Alex’s left wrist. He had a band of the bisexual flag on it.

“Ah, yeah.” Alex put his hand down and picked up his applesauce cup, drinking it. John stared at him strangely. “What?”

“Did you just drink you applesauce?”

“Yeah?” John gave him a stranger look. “John, it’s in a cup shaped container-”

“-That doesn’t mean that you drink it!” John chuckled.

“You’re eating spaghetti with a spoon!” Alex said defensively and accusingly.

“That’s different!” John laughed at Alex trying to take this seriously.

Alex spent the next two classes paying more attention to John than he did the day before. Gym was a sort of reset for him and he went to hang out with Eliza after school. “Hey, Eliza?”

“Mmhm?”

“Wanna come over to George’s for dinner or something?” Alex asked.

“Sure, I’ll text my pops.” She picked up her phone and started typing. “Is this going to explain why you’re bein’ weird?”

“Yeah, I’ll tell you,” Alex rolled his eyes with a smile. Her dad said yes, they hung with Peggy and Angelica, and when her dad came by to pick them up, Eliza and Alexander started walking hand in hand.

“So?” Eliza started.

“Just to clarify,” Alex said, thinking back to when they both started dating, “We agreed that we would be willing to be in a polyamorous relationship, right?”

“Yup,” Eliza confirmed. She gasped. “Wait! You like John?” Alex put one hand to his chin.

“Maybe,” He squinted. Eliza squealed and punched his arm.

“Alexander!” She laughed.

“What?” He laughed in confusion.

“Me too, you dork!” She raised her hands, Alex’s left one along with hers.

“Really?” Alex asked, “Wait, what if he’s straight?”

“I saw an abrosexual pin on his bag,” Eliza said.

“Betsey, you genius detective! That’s the one you think is really pretty, right?”

“Yeah, the green and pink one,” She confirmed.

“I don’t wanna like…” Alex searched for the words, “Alexanscare him off, y’know?” Eliza cracked up.

“Alexanscare!” She mocked, “I know what you mean, yeah.” A plan started to bloom in his head. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”

“You ever see, in those really, really cheesy movies where the person has a secret admirer?”

“We could leave him notes!” Eliza rubbed her thumb on Alex’s knuckles. “Put ‘em in his locker. He uses it, right?”

“Yeah, it’s near mine.”

“We should make some tonight!” Eliza said, still smiling.

“We can, if you want.”

“I have my gel pens,” Eliza said, “We should.” They greeted George at the door, who knew and had grown fond of Eliza, and they brought their bags upstairs. Eliza stole Alex’s desk and he got the nearest hard surface he could find, a book, and sat on his bed. Eliza opened the drawer right under the desk, where Alex kept blank paper, and took some out along with scissors. “I’m making mine decorated and cute.” Alex chuckled.

“Like you?”

“Exactly!” She pumped her fist into the air. She leaned down to rummage through her bag, pulling out a pencil case. “What colors do you want?”

“Dark blue, please.” She chucked a few pens at him that match the description. Some were glittery or metallic. Alex smiled at just how… Eliza her pens were. Eliza pulled out a teal one to start with. The two wrote for a bit, Eliza making several small ones as Alex focused on fewer, longer notes. Eliza spun to him in his office-esque chair.

“Wanna hear some?” Alex capped the pen and sat up to listen. She cleared her throat and read dramatically, “Dear John, really like the earrings, you look hot. Keep it up.” Alex snorted. Eliza smiled and picked up another. “Dear John, you’re hair is really fluffy and it looks like cotton candy. Love that stuff.”

“They’re so cute.”

“Thank you,” Eliza bowed in her seat, “I imagine your’s are novels?”

“You know me so well.” Alex grabbed one and handed it to her.

“Alexander, this is really well written,” Eliza complimented. Alex smiled. “I expected nothing less considering how you text and stuff.”

“Eloquently put, Elizabeth,” Alex said sarcastically.

“That’s your job, but I can write my fair share of poetic love letters, Alex.”

“I know,” Alex smiled warmly. “I hope he likes these.”

“Me too. How he talks about them might give us an idea.”

“Think he’ll be weirded out by having two different people doing this?” Eliza shrugged.

“Only one way to find out,” She offered.

The next day, Eliza and Alex each slipped a note into John’s locker. Alex went to his locker and opened it, Eliza stood with him and chatted as the two waited. Soon enough, lollipop in his mouth, John walked up to his locker. “Mornin’ Alex. Eliza,” he greets. They greet him, then pretend to talk as they side glance him. John opens the locker and two notes fall out, he steps back. John bends down to pick them up. One’s a blank envelope with “John” written on it in a black pen. The other is smaller with a red tint and closed with a heart shape sticker, “John” written elegantly in a glitter gel pen. John’s eyebrows raise. “You guys see who put these here?”

“Oh, uh, sorry I didn’t,” Alex apologized. Eliza shook her head.

“Huh.” He put the larger one under his arm and opened the smaller one. He half smiled in confusion.

“Which one did you do?” Alex whispered.

“It says, ‘John, your freckles remind me of a chocolate chip cookie. Fitting; you’re sweet.’ Yours?”

“The one you read last night.” They look back to John who put it carefully back into the envelope and put it in his bag. He opened the other one, leaning on the lockers. Alex grew nervous as John’s eyes went back and forth across the piece of paper. As he got to the end, his face had grown pinker, but it wouldn’t be noticeable to people who weren’t watching. Hesitant, Alex said, “So… What do they say?” John looked up quickly, as if startled.

“Um.” He folded the paper quickly. “They’re love letters?”

“Wait really?” Alex asked. “People actually do that?”

“I- I guess?” He put it back in the envelope and placed Alex’s letter in his bag.

“I think it’s cute,” Eliza elbowed Alex, “traditional.” The five minute bell rang. “Welp! Have fun with your secret admirer!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, the semester project is something I did in highschool and it's going to kinda seperate act one and two for this :0
> 
> Hope you liked it! Tumblr: elpidiahope.tumblr.com


	3. Secret Conversations

Though he was a little distracted for first period, Alexander was still pretty much the same, jumping to participate. The morning seemed to go by very quickly, but also slowly? It didn’t make sense, but that’s how Alex felt. As soon as the bell rang, Alex rushed to lunch.

This time, he wasn’t the first one there. The Schuyler sisters had beaten him to it, along with John. Alex smiled at them and sat down. Immediately, he engaged with one of his word dump conversations with Eliza. John stared in astonishment at Eliza, who was comprehending a billion words per second, even responding. It was just a dumb story about something that happened after Eliza left the night before that led up to a joke George made today, but still, Alex could talk about just about anything. Of course, Angelica and Peggy didn’t bat an eye at Alex’s word vomit.

“Dude,” John whispered as Alex stopped and Eliza giggled. Eliza looked over to him with a sympathetic look.

“Get used to it, Johnny.” Alex laughed. “What?”

“‘Johnny’.” He air quoted. “Oh! By the way!” Alex faced John. “Got a phone?”

“Uh, yeah?” Alex pulled his phone out.

“Can I get your number?” Alex asked.

“Oo! Me, too!” Eliza beamed, pulling her phone out of her bag.

“O-oh! Yeah, sure.” John recited the number to both of them as the rest of their group joined the table.

“I need your numbers, too!” Eliza said to them.

“Yeah,” Alex agreed.

“Why, hello to you all, too,” Lafayette rolled his eyes with a smile. Regardless, Hercules and Lafayette gave the two their numbers.

“Thank you,” Eliza drawled.

“Now we can send you memes,” Alex claimed.

“John!” Eliza leaned over the table a little. “Have you found out anything about the notes?”

“What notes?” Hercules asked. Lafayette looked to John, also unaware of said notes.

“I uh, got some letters in my locker this morning,” John explained, “Like, love letters?” Lafayette gasped.

“Strange!” He cheered.

“And no. I haven’t found out anything. It’s probably two people, though,” he said, “I mean, different handwriting and stuff.”

“Lemme see!” Lafayette grabbed John’s arm and shook it. “I wish to see your cheesy love notes!”

“Fine,” John laughed, unzipping his backpack. Alex and Eliza tried to looked interested in the letters even though they, obviously, knew what they said. Lafayette yanked them out of his hands.

“Careful,” Alex chuckled.

“Aw, this is adorable,” Lafayette said, “There’s little hearts on this one. Lafayette showed Eliza’s note to Eliza and Alex. Lafayette took a look at Alex’s letter. “Woah, this one’s pretty long.” Only slightly embarrassed, because they didn’t know it was him, Alex sat. “Well, whoever they are, they’re very observant.”

“Who do you think it is?” Hercules asked.

“No idea,” John sighed. Hercules turned the paper Lafayette had.

“Well, they both use gel pens.”

“Oh, yeah, they do!” Lafayette handed them back. “Who has gel pens?”

“Hm, a few of the girls, but I’m not sure,” John said.

“Heck, I have gel pens,” Eliza shrugged, “Could be anyone. People also steal them all the time, so, literally anyone.”

“Oh, I remember that one kid that stole five of yours last year,” Alex said. Eliza hummed in thought.

“Is there anyone who you think it’d be?” She wondered. John crossed his arms and thought.

“I don’t think so?” He mumbled. Lafayette tapped on the table.

“This is so exciting and mysterious,” he moved his hand across the air on the last word, as if presenting it.

“Oh please,” John chuckled, “It’s probably just George’s group fucking with me.” Alex raised his eyebrows. “No, not the teacher.”

“There’s a group led by a certain George,” Hercules explained, “That gives John a rough time.”

“I swear,” Lafayette scoffed, “They treat him like a king. Especially Samuel.”

“The priest boy?” John snickered at the nickname.

“Yep,” he confirmed.

“That’d be a little messed up,” Eliza crossed her arms. Hercules shrugged. Lafayette turned to Hercules.

He muttered, “Tu veux venir après l'école?”

“Sûr,” he answered with a thumbs up.

“Why the French?” Alex asked.

“Secret conversations!” Lafayette answered with jazz hands. Alex nodded slowly, turning to Eliza and wiggling his eyebrows. She smirked.

“Comment osez-vous garder secrets?” She scoffed sarcastically.

Même si je viens de vous rencontrer,” Alex put a hand to his heart, “Je suis profondément offensé!” At Lafayette's uncomfortable look, he added, “I thought we had something, Laffy Taffy!” John burst out laughing. Alex beamed at him. Lafayette laughed stiffly. “You are not helping to keep your statement innocent, Laf.” Hercules elbowed him hard enough to wince. He snapped out of it.

“Alex!” He turned his nose up, “Are you accusing me of an inappropriate relationship with my colleague?”

“I dare say that I did first,” Eliza claimed, “Just by your phrasing.”

“Okay, what is happening,” John said, a laugh still in is voice, “I don’t know French.”

“Y’know,” Alex playfully ignored, “I thought you had a bit of an accent.”

“I came to America for sixth grade, so that makes sense.”

“Dude, no fair,” John complained, “I don’t have anyone to have secret Spanish conversations with.”

Alex grinned and melodramatically declared, “Pues bien, querido John, soy tu caballero de brillante armadura.” John beamed.

“¡Mi príncipe!” He cheered, throwing his hands in the air.

“Ack!” Eliza cringed, “I don’t know Spanish!”

“At tu scis Latine,” Alex pointed out.

“First off, I’m pretty sure that’s wrong,” Eliza said, “Secondly, I only barely know it.”

“Okay,” Hercules sighed, “Did Alex sell his soul to Satan to know all these languages?”

“Nope, only my time,” Alex shot finger guns at Hercules. The group noticed people leaving and followed the herd back to class.

For the rest of the day, as a continuation of the joke, Alex spoke to Eliza in French and to John in Spanish. They got weird looks from everyone, but who cares? It was fun. Eliza and Alex kept joking about how Laf’s reaction was suspicious. John and him kept jokingly flirting in Spanish. It only hurt Alex a little, since he knew John most likely thought he was kidding. Just a small twinge in his chest. Eliza could tell a little, but not enough to say anything.

The three had a new determination to learn Latin since they could potentially confuse people with it. It was a lot easier for them to learn, being multilingual, so they were just a tad faster than their classmates.

“Oh by the way, Betsey,” Alex mumbled while writing something, “You left your purse at my house. George had invited you over for dinner, if you want. Grab it while you’re there, y’know. If you want.”

“I’ll text my dad,” she responded. Alex felt John’s stare and glanced to the side to see his face, confused. He looked like he wanted to ask about something. Alex realized he just admitted to Eliza coming over to his house, alone.

“What?” He said more like a statement.

“Oh, um,” he looked down a second before looking back up and smiling, “Nothing. Spacing out.” Alex stared skeptically for a moment, then let it go.

Eliza sighed, “La douleur Exquise.”

“What?” Alex asked.

“Nothing. Spacing out,” She repeated. Confused, Alex kept working. Without his knowledge, Eliza and John made deadpan eye contact. They related, that moment.

Eliza sat in Alex’s desk chair, spinning absentmindedly. “You get emotionally invested so quickly.”

“I’m a man of passion.”

“You are fifteen.”

“I’m a boy of passion.” Eliza laughed.

“How’s George doing with the whole Dad Thing,” Eliza inquired, “You said he was awkward at first.”

“He is absolutely a dad,” Alex smiled, “He’s a full on barbecue-in-a-Hawaiian-shirt dad.”

“Really? I gotta bring my sisters for a barbecue this summer, then,” Eliza declared, “Are you still awkward at being a son?”

“Ha ha,” Alex said, lacking emotion, “Very funny.”

“Well, are you?” There was a silence.

“Yeah,” he groaned, shoving his face into his pillow. Eliza smiled. “I don’t know what it is, but I’m just not a good son.”

“Aw, don’t say that,” Eliza reassured, “You’re not out getting a fake id or anything.”

“True,” came Alex’s muffled voice. He lifted his face again. “I’ll never be as kind as you, though.”

“Eh, I dunno,” Eliza began spinning again, “I can get pretty bad when I’m angry.”

“Oh?”

“Mmhm.” She closed her eyes. “One time I thought Peggy broke my phone, so I stole her stuff. I yelled at her and stuff. Slowly, so she’d notice things were just slowly disappearing. Things she liked, like her 3ds.”

“You demon.”

“But then I found out it wasn’t her. It was a classmate.”

“Ouch.”

“Yeah, I still feel really bad about it…”

“You thought she broke your things.”

“But she hadn’t.” Eliza stopped spinning again. “It was wrong of me.”

“See? That!” Alex said, “You’re defending your sister instead of you!” Eliza shrugged. “Sweet as sugar.”

“And you’re as salty as the dead sea,” Eliza grinned.

“Perhaps I am,” Alex posed dramatically on the bed, “But I’m proud of my salt.”

“You’re The Salt Queen, Alexander.”

“Bow before me!” Alex cheered to Eliza’s giggles.

“That bitterness is bound to get you in trouble, someday.”

“It already has, and it will continue to do so,” Alex shrugged.

Eliza smirked, “You could, maybe, be nicer to people.” Alex faked offence.

“How dare you! I embrace my faults!”

“Whatever, your majesty.” Alex stuck his tongue out. Eliza rolled her eyes and responded by sticking her tongue out.

Angrily, Alex made a, “Mleh!”

“Bleh!” Eliza shot back.

“MLEH!”

“BLEH!” The door opened beside them. Alex jumped from the sudden sound.

“Mleh!” George entered loudly. “Time for dinner, kiddos.” 


	4. Storm

Unsurprisingly, Alexander took the part of the essays for the project. It was not necessarily what he particularly wanted to do, but it’s what George thought was best. Over the first few months of school, Alex proved to be an outstanding writer. His writing could be mistaken for a man in the seventeen hundreds.

Also, for the first few months of school, Alex and Eliza continued putting notes in John’s locker. It became a reason to like going to school for him. Eliza and Alex were both, a bit blatantly, favoring John. Enough for Angelina and Peggy to notice, but not so much Lafayette and Hercules. It might not have been as obvious to them, considering Alex and Eliza would often act like a couple rather obviously. Eliza stole Alex’s sweatshirts, texted him all the time, had posts about and by him all over every social media she owned, and was the only one to comfortably call him ‘Alexander’. Alex invited her over all the time, kissed her (a big “duh; they’re dating to everyone), stole her food, got her food, wrote her actual love letters to which she wrote back despite them seeing each other five days a week, wrote posts about her, and called her Betsey. You’d have to be blind not to see that they were head over heals for each other.

But then, there were the shier things they would do for John. The notes, of course, but nobody knew it was them except for maybe the sisters, since Eliza told them almost everything. Eliza played with his hair, hugged him a lot, kissed his cheek, called him “Johnny”, helped him with math, some people even thought they were dating on occasion. Alex was a bit more subtle. He’d pay attention; get him snacks he said he liked in passing, complimented him on slight changes in appearance nobody else would notice, helped him with English homework, and always offered to talk if John looked a little down. They grew close very quickly, clicked.

John was very good at hiding when he was down, though. While he insisted it was just annoying, it was obvious George’s group had it out for him. He hid it. They’d make remarks as they passed, send anonymous threats in great detail, things like that. It was annoying, yes, but it was damaging. They’d been doing this for years. Making him flinch, then making fun of him for it. Insulting his opinions, criticized his sexuality, scoffed slurs and stereotypes of his race. Kids aren’t meant to deal with that.

That’s why, when the letters started, John was pleasantly surprised. More than one person liked him. The two were sweet, and seeing the notes brightened his day. He kept them, all of them, in two different folders. The compliments ranged from generic to genuine to personal. These people really seemed to care about him. His siblings mocked him for it, but in good nature. He had a reason to want to go to school, other than Laf and Herc. He had new friends, and some admirers. He was happy. For once, George, Samuel, and other’s remarks would be brushed off his shoulder.

John noticed Alexander’s bi bracelet. He also noticed Eliza’s poly button on her purse that she’d bring sometimes. He knew Eliza noticed his button, and Alex, because she told him Alex thought the flag was pretty. John had laughed at that. John didn’t know if they knew Laf’s and Herc’s sexualities, but they kinda seemed to know, at least vaguely, about their relationship. Laf was showy, but Herc wasn’t, so Laf agreed to not advertise it like a gossip article in the school paper, the only column that could be submitted by somebody not in the paper club. Completely anonymous. Lord knows how they got away with that, but it is kinda funny.

Another person who was showy, in a different way, was Alex. This made them get along. Alexander was unapologetically himself, broadcasted his beliefs like everybody was listening. He’d get into arguments with almost anyone, just for the thrill it seemed. It concerned Mr. Washington to no end. He constantly threatened him with suspension, but never followed through. On the outside, y’might think it was because he was his son, but anyone who had a class with Mr. Washington knew that he got attached to people easily if they clicked, not just Alex.

One mystery of Alex, though there were many, was his silence of his past. Nobody really noticed, because of him still briefly mentioning his childhood, but that was it. Brief. Vague. Generic. John could tell there were things he was hiding, but didn’t want to press it. After all, everybody had their demons, and he didn’t want to lose one of his dearest friends.

Eliza was quieter. But… not. She was childish, yet maternal in a way. A true puzzle of contradictions. Her childhood was happy and sad at the same time. She was reserved when she wanted to be, but could be loud as if someone handed her a microphone. She could choose her battles wisely, unlike Alex. John found it intriguing- funny, even. He could text her about almost anything.

Watching the two was strange. Eliza anchored Alex while Alex inspired her to act a little more wild than usual. The two got along with John like they’d known each other for years. According to Eliza, Alex got attached to people quickly and very much. Sometimes he’d talk so quickly he’d stumble on words or forget a few in a sentence. He would get frustrated, but wouldn’t slow down. He’d fight anyone if they insulted him or his friends. He already had, like, five school shirts and sweatshirts. He was the kind of kid described as “good weird” to his siblings. Overall, he was a very happy, ambitious dude that seemed to fear nothing and nobody.

One day, Alex and Eliza were walking from English to Latin with John. “Hey, John?” Alex asked, “Do you think you could come over to my house to watch a movie on friday? Eliza’s going to be there, just so you know.”

“Oh, sure,” John agreed, “What movie?” He shrugged and grinned. John rolled his eyes and smiled.

Friday rolled around soon enough (though homework made it seem like an eternity). Eliza and John arrived within seconds of eachother. They walked up the driveway as their parents got into one of those forever-long-parent-conversations. “Hey guys!” Alex greeted. Everyone gathered in to sit down for dinner, pizza. The dining table was by a sliding door, and literally everybody there, including George and his wife, noticed him staring out it a lot. He was also checking his phone a lot. It was a little confusing, but whatever, right?

After dinner, the kids got together on the couch, Alex in the middle, to pick out a movie. “What do you guys wanna watch? Comedy? Horror?”

“I’m always a sucker for scary movies,” John offered.

“I’m down,” Eliza agreed. Alex smiled and went to the category. They went through a few until they found one they were all interested in, and he hit play. While the adds played, Alex turned off the lights and got snacks. It was almost pitch black because it was cloudy out, and getting darker, anyway. Alex got a few blankets and they all shared them as the film began.

It was pretty scary, but John didn’t flinch a lot in general from movies. Eliza, however, did. She screamed a bit, too. They all laughed about it. Alex just seemed generally unnerved. It started raining and it really added to the atmosphere. They sat, eyes glued to the screen. It looked like a nervous habit, but Alex was cracking his knuckles.

At the same time as a jumpscare, lightning and thunder boomed and flashed. Alex seemed to shrink into Eliza. Funny, usually guys do the stereotypical hug-the-scared-chick, but it was kinda the opposite. Eliza looked confused, but kept watching. A few seconds later, Alex’s phone buzzed. He had his brightness all the way down, so nobody cared that he checked his phone. He huffed quietly and sent a quick text to whoever. John started paying more attention to him, he’d seen the movie, anyway. He was wiping his hands on his pants, not from popcorn butter, but sweat. Under the blanket, he hugged his knees and checked his phone for the billionth time. It was the weather app? John, hesitantly but purposefully, brushed against Alex. He jumped. Eliza snickered at him.

John slowly grabbed his phone and texted Alex. “You aight dude,” he sent. Alex checked his phone and looked up to John with a raised eyebrow.

He typed, “yea im fine?” Unconvincing, but it wasn’t his place to question him. Was Alex afraid of storms? Well, John wouldn’t question Alex… He opened his messages with Eliza.

“Alex has been checkn the weather all night,,, you sure hes afraid of the movie??” He sent, trying to hide the fact he was texting her. Alex was distracted, anyway. She turned her phone over to see it. Her eyes darted to him and Alex.

She sent, “he WAS staring at the clouds all night, only jumped at the thunder too. Whyd he wanna watch a horror then tho?”

John sent, “idk, hide the fear, strategic. He was too reckless with the weather app tho.”

“Well he is reckless lol,” she sent. After hesitating, she sent, “george texted him earlier askin him if he needed to go upstairs. He just said he was fine and could deal with ‘it’...” Another thunder, another jump. Alex stood up and fast walked.

“Bathroom,” he whispered. John and Eliza looked at each other.

“Bullshit,” John whispered. Eliza nodded in agreement.

Alexander shut his bedroom door behind him and got, like, four blankets from his closet, his ear buds, curled up, and turned up the music so loud he couldn’t hear anything else. His jaw clenched, he was sweating, his eyes screwed shut, his chest was tight like someone was sitting on him. He repeated counts to ten, did the four-seven-eight breathing thing, and tried to ground himself. He didn’t wanna go back out there. He didn’t wanna face that. He also didn’t want his friend and girlfriend to think he was weak, pathetic. He couldn’t always hide in his room. God, did he wish he could. The last thing he wanted to do was go out there while he felt like he was dying. After who knows how long, Alex quickly threw on different, similar clothes and went back out. He had a fidget cube in his sweatshirt pocket.

John heard him coming down the stairs. He and Eliza immediately got into their “act natural” pose. After all, nobody really takes twenty minute bathroom breaks and comes back in different clothes. Eliza leaned on him more than before, trying to support him. John didn’t know how, so he just offered him popcorn. At some point, Alex put his head in Eliza’s neck. John felt really bad for him, but didn’t know what to do.

The movie finished, but nobody moved. At this point, there was really no ignoring it. “Liar,” John whispered. Alex looked up to him, confused. “‘I’m fine’,” he mocked.

“I am!” His voice was strained. John and Eliza gave him a look. He cleared his throat. “Well, I am.”

“Alexander,” Eliza sounded sympathetic. He shifted, uncomfortable with her puppy eyes. He turned to John, but he was also giving him puppy eyes. Alex seemed restless.

“Neither of you are on my side-” Another house-shaking boom. Since he was facing John, Alex lurched forward and kinda pressed his head against John’s chest. Reflexively, John sorta hugged him. His cheeks pinkened, but he didn’t wanna move Alex, who was shaking a little. Eliza also scooted over and hugged him. The group sat there, in an embrace for a while. It was comfortable.

It was still raining, but the thunder and lightning stopped. Alex whispered, “Shit.” He shot up. “Shit, shit- sorry, I-” John unceremoniously slapped his hand to Alex’s mouth. Eliza snickered. Alex’s face was hot and red.

“Dude, I get it,” John stated. Alex moved his hand.

“I ruined movie night, though-” once again, John slapped his mouth, to Eliza’s amusement. Annoyed with someone shutting him up for once, Alex just smirked and slowly licked his hand. He yelped and snatched his hand away, red faced again.

“He licked me!” Eliza laughed. Alex smiled at lightening the mood. He chuckled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing angst is so easy for me honestly???


	5. A Dance

Kids actually got pretty into their roles for the project. “Loyalist” or “Rebel” could be a defining term about someone. They, playfully, became insults and cause many arguments. Nothing got out of hand, though. It was all in good fun. It seemed like the school strategically scheduled a dance for mid-late November, when tension was rising a little.

Students put aside their homework and stress for a night and all got together for, pretty much, a party. Food, little supervision, most of the school building, and reckless teens made for a fun time. Eliza and Alex arranged to go together. Alex walked over to her house to pick her up. It was pretty formal, but not prom or anything. Eliza bid “seeya at the dance” to her sisters and went to walk with Alex.

“Hey, do you still remember how to dance from those stupid lessons at our old school?” Eliza grinned.

“I knew how to dance before that,” he faux scoffed, “You?”

“Angelica and I dance around the house a lot, yeah,” she laughed, “Hey, is this an all-school thing?”

“All the highschoolers, yeah.”

“We gotta dance together, then,” she grabbed his arm, “Nobody ever coordinates anything for these things besides swaying together.” Alex nodded in agreement and they kept chatting as they walked.

When they walked in, there were already a lot of people in the gym. “Ooh Alexander, I’ll meet you at the food table, I gotta say hi to this girl.” Eliza kissed his cheek and ran off as fast as she could in her shoes. Alex walked up to the table, hands in his pocket and looking around with a smile.

“Hello, Alex,” Aaron greeted.

“Aaron! What’s up?” Alex snatched a cookie from the table.

“Nothin’ much.” He was staring at someone. Alex looked to where he was looking and smirked.

“Are you checking her out?” Alex nudged him, pointing to a girl in a grade above them.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said sarcastically with a smile.

“Hey, you’re kinda a flirt, right?” Alex asked, “Gossip could be wrong, but I heard it from Angelica.”

“I guess you could say that, but you’re not exactly shy, either. You and Eliza are both like that, actually, despite you two dating,” Aaron pours a cup of punch. Alex just shrugged.

“You could say we’re all reliable with the ladies,” Alex chuckled, Aaron laughed. “Well, good luck with her.” Eliza made her way to Alex.

“Heyo, Aaron!” She smiled. Aaron smiled back. Eliza’s voice grew quieter so Aaron couldn’t hear. “Did you see John?”

Alex also responded quietly, “No?”

“Cleans up really nice.” She grabbed his head and turned it to where John stood, talking with Herc. Alex could immediately feel his cheeks warm. Eliza was not wrong at all. Her voice went back to normal. “Well, let’s go! Bye, Aaron.”

“Seeya,” he raised his eyebrows to Alex, confused by the mumbling. Alex and Eliza went over to Herc and John.

“Hey, guys,” Eliza said.

“Hey, ‘Liza,” Her said, John stared at the two. If it weren’t for Alex being surprisingly dence, they might’ve noticed. “Oh, Alex, you’re wearing your necklace and an actual necklace tonight.”

“Hm?” He looked down, “Oh, yeah. I didn’t want it to slip off with the dancing.” He fiddled with his little sun charm from Eliza when they started going out. It was his replacement for a tie.

“You lo- you two look nice!” John complimented, his brain finally loading.

“You, too!” Alex and Eliza blurted in unison, followed by unnerved, yet amused, eye contact between the two.

“Have you seen Laf?” Hercules asked.

“I just got here,” Alex shook his head.

“He’s… Coming tonight? I thought he hated dances?” John asked in confusion.

“He does, but I convinced him it’d be fun if he was a klutz or not,” Herc grinned. John rolled his eyes with a smile.

“You wouldn’t think him a klutz,” Alex commented.

“He’s worse than a baby deer in ice skates,” Her deadpanned. Eliza giggled.

“If I were a slightly worse person, I’d invite him to dance with me,” Alex stated, “Slightly.”

“ALEX!” Peggy jumped onto Alex’s back, making the group laugh, Angelica walking to stand beside her sister.

“Sweet Jesus, Peggy!” Alex choked.

“Lemme do your makeup,” she whispered, sliding off.

“Peggy, no,” Alex crossed his arms.

“‘Peggy no’ what?” John asked.

“Pleeeeease, Alex? Angelica and Eliza let me!”

“Oh, I know,” Angelica said, leaning into Eliza. Eliza’s face lit up.

“Alexander, do it! Please, please, please?”

“Peggy, you’re just going to ruin my shirt-” he grumbled.

“No I won’t, when have I ever gotten makeup on your clothes?” She mumbled back. The music made it impossible to hear unless you were right next to them. Eliza grabbed his arm and put all her weight on him.

“Please?” She drawled.

“I brought setting powder in my bag, it won’t get on your clothes.” Alex looked into their puppy eyes and groaned.

“Fine.” Peggy cheered and dragged him into the hall.

“What was that?” Herc laughed.

“Well now it’s a surprise,” Eliza smiled.

“Hey, guys!” Lafayette walked to the group, looking a little uncomfortable.

“Lookin’ good, Laf!” Eliza finger gunned. Just how many of her friends cleaned up well?

“Thanks, where are Peggy and le petit lion?” He asked.

“Alex? Oh, you’ll see.” He looked to Angelica who just shrugged. “Angie, dance with me!”

“Peggy! Ow!” Alex winced, “Poked me in the eye.”

“Sorry, stop moving, almost done.”

“Why do you even wanna do this here if you already did Angelica and Eliza’s makeup?” He said. He’d be fine with it if it wasn’t at school.

“Because I know about John and you look hot with makeup-” Alex coughed “-Oh, grow up, Lexie. It’s about as obvious you like John as it is that you like Eliza.” She finished up his face and snapped her fingers. “Handsome boy! You should wear your hair down more.” Alex shrugged.

“Let’s go back.”

“Oh my loooooord,” Lafayette smirked, shaking Herc and John. John turned to see Alex in beauty guru worthy makeup. Lipstick, eyeliner, mascara, everything. Let’s just say John didn’t need to put on blush. “Alex what is on your face, my friend?”

“Beautiful as always, pretty boy,” Angelica crossed her arms.

“‘AS ALWAYS’!” Laf laughed, catching other student’s attention. Instead of sheepishly hiding away at the stares, Alex just posed to the amusement of his friends. He and Peggy started to join in on dancing with their friends.

After a bit, Eliza tugged on Alex’s sleeves. “Alexander, it’s the right tempo! Dance time!” Alex and Eliza laughed as they started to all-out salsa dance to the song playing. Lafayette, the bad dancer he was, gawked at them. John stared, Her laughed, and Angelica and Peggy went on business as usual. Once again, attention turned to them as they held nothing back.

“Wait, is Eliza leading?” Laf said to John and Herc more like a statement than a question.

“I think so!” Hercules started to laugh again. While they were all dancing, John noticed that Eliza and Alex had matching makeup. He snorted, and kept dancing. He realized that he found his friends very attractive. At some point, Eliza dipped Alexander who made Hercules die of laughter because she dipped him so that he did the splits. Alex heard someone mumble something like “Fuckin’ freashmen…”

“Alexander, this is the gayest you have ever looked to me,” Eliza smirked.

“Really?” He responded, “‘Cause I’m feeling hella straight looking at you-” Eliza dropped him, laughing. Alex laughed, too. “Does that mean we’re done?!” He called after her as she walked to her sister. He slid back up.

“Dude.” Alex turned to see John, smirking and raising his eyebrows at him. “What was that?”

“Psssh, you’re just jealous at how gorgeous Peggy made me,” He winked. John laughed. “Wanna get something to drink?” John walked with Alex to the food table.

“Were you planning that?” Angelica nudged her sister.

“Fortunate coincidence,” Eliza answered.

“So, where’d you learn to dance like that,” John smiled, lifting the cup to his lips.

“My mom taught me.”

“Did she teach you the splits, too?” Alex laughed.

“No, that was a boyfriend, Edward.”

“When’d you date him?” John tilted his head. Alex shrugged.

“Sixth to eighth grade, we were friends long before that, though.” Alex swirled the drink around in his cup. “He- uh- wasn’t really cool with me being polyamorous. We had a pretty big fight about it before I transferred.” John hadn't known Alex was polyamorous. That peaked his interest.

“Ah, that sucks, dude.” He took a sip and tossed his cup into the trash.

“Yeah, I miss him, but it wasn’t meant to be, y’know?” Alex finished his drink. “I’m not changing that big of a thing about myself for someone else.” Alex dropped his cup in the trash. “D’you know how to dance?”

“Eh, I’m not horrible,” John half smiled.

“Wanna dance, then?” John stared at him blankly, unsure by what he was implying. “Uh, if you want, like, as friends, if you want-”

“-Sure, Alex,” John smiled as Alex fumbled over his words. It was a rare occurrence. “Maybe we’ll get to see Lafayette trip over his own feet.”

Through the night, a few different friends stole Alex for a dance. Just as John hoped, Lafayette tripped on top of Hercules, like you see in movies and think “That never happens!” But, it does. More than one would think. A few jokes were made about it. Even more were made about Alex with his dancing and his makeup, especially by people that didn’t know him.

After a while, Alex decided to step outside for some air. The hundreds of dancing teenagers made it hot in the gym. He unpopped a few buttons on his shirt and fanned himself. The cool breeze blew over him as he sat on the stairs leading to the door. He leaned his head against the metal railing, the coolness spread on his face like ice.

Eliza popped down next to him and held a pop can to the other side of his face. “Hey.” Alex smiled, eyes closed, and put his hand over Eliza’s.

“Thanks.”

“Aren’t you used to being warm?”

“I’m not used to being active.”

“You’re in gym class-”

“-Shhhh,” he chuckled. He shifted his weight so his head was on her shoulder. Eliza grinned, grabbed his face, and pulled him into a kiss.

John was about to go outside to see where his friends were going, but halted with his hand on the handle of the glass door. His smile fell. His eyes locked on Alex and Eliza, kissing. He lifted his hand, the handle made a click. He slowly stepped back into the party.

Later, the two walked back in, thought nobody saw. Alex was talking with Lafayette and Eliza went over to Peggy. “Hey, have you seen John?” She asked.

“I think he went to the bathroom,” she responded. Peggy thought it was best not to mention how long ago he went in there. Besides, Eliza couldn’t just waltz into the boy’s bathroom.

John didn’t really feel jealous or anything. He just felt… Sad, lonely, maybe. Eliza and Alex were so good together. It made him feel empty when he realized he probably would never get to be a part of that. He was pretty partied out, anyway. John didn’t really like how long these parties were.

So, he went home early.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a sprinkle of angst with the fluff  
> (Ft. All three of them are clueless someone help them)


	6. Run

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Tw for blood and bruises later on in the chapter!  
> A non graphic summary at the end in case! Ill write in when to skip

It was not a secret that Alex had a tendency to overwork himself. The Schuylers and Washington already knew this from last year. Normal homework, the project, class, just normal school stuff could build up and be overwhelming for anyone. Alex, one could say, had self-destructive tendencies when he got overwhelmed. It’s a good thing that he liked the subjects in school.

His friends were getting stressed, too. Soon they’d even have to start studying for exams! The first half of the project had a deadline of just before exams. Everything was piling up, and a few people were starting to notice that procrastination was not the best option anymore.

“Dude,” Laf groaned, “The Rebels are not doing so hot, the Loyalists are kicking our asses!”

“I would give anything to slap that stupid smile of Charles Lee’s face,” John complained, “He’s weighing down the whole group! How hard is it to make a few power points?”

“This is dumb,” Her joined, “Half of us are just doing the same thing, anyway.”

“Yeah, I noticed that,” Alex said, “I’m definintly not the only one writing.”

“You are definitely writing the most, though,” Eliza said, “One time you texted me ‘goodnight’ at like four am. Don’t you wake up at six?”

“Yeah?”

“Alex, that’s insane,” Angelica chimed in.

“Well, I am insane, so…”

“Alex.” Angelica leaned over Eliza to meet his eyes. “You look like shit, get some sleep.”

“Wow, thanks.”

“She’s right,” Laf hummed. “You can’t run on two hours of sleep.”

“I have before, and I will continue to-!”

“Alex!” Samuel stopped by their table, arms crossed. “So, how are your papers?”

“Fine, not that it’s your business,” Alex spit.

“Hm, that’s nice. Mine are finished.” Samuel smirked and walked off.

“Unnecessary,” Alex mumbled.

“Nope,” John agreed, “He looks like a lost puppy.”

“He is George’s dog,” Laf grinned, referring to the Loyalist George. Alex pulled a book out of his bag, on the revolution, and started to read it.

“Alexander? Why are you holding that book six inches from your face?” Eliza asked. Alex flushed a little.

“I- uh… I forgot to put in contacts this morning and I forget where I put my glasses,” Alex muttered.

“You wear glasses?” Laf asked. Alex nodded. Eliza sighed and rummaged through her bag. She pulled out a case and handed it to Alex.

“Why do you have my glasses?” Alex grabbed the case.

“They’re your old ones. Remember that time you forgot them last year? Yeah, not happening again,” she replied. Alex popped open the case.

“Oh, the blue ones,” he chuckled. He pushed the square frames onto his face. “Thanks, Betsey.” He still had a bit of an embarrassed blush. John felt his heart swell, he looked adorable.

“I can’t believe Alex is a dork,” He joked. Alex laughed.

“I thought I had more of a nerd vibe.” He looked at the book again. “Better, but the black ones are definitely more updated.”

The kids go through their day. With every passing day, Alex regrets more and more taking gym instead of a sport.

Alex groaned as he walked out of the gym building after the bell rang. He walked to the side where he and the Schuyler sisters usually sat. Instead, he heard some yelling. Alex changed directions to go to the other side of the building, curiosity coaxing him. He got close enough to hear that it was George’s group’s voice. Alex rolled his eyes and turned on his heel to walk back.

 

This is the trigger warning for injuries!

 

Then, he heard John’s voice screaming. Alex shed his backpack and sprinted to the corner without a second thought. George’s group surrounded him, Charles Lee with him in the middle. He punched John, who had a lot more injuries than Charles.

A fire erupted in Alex. His teeth grit, he moved to sprint. His feet flew under him. He shoved Samuel and George so hard they tumbled to the asphalt. Alex reeled back and threw his fist into Charles chest with all his weight behind him. He coughed and fell to the ground, winded. Alex snatched John’s bruised wrist and yanked him away. John was shouting at him, but it went through one ear and out the other. Alex could sense people chasing them and sprinted faster, pulling John along, the only thing keeping him from tripping or lagging behind. Alex picked up his bag as he ran and turned the other corner.

“Alex?!” Angelica’s voice called out. Alex whipped his head to the sound and tripped over a bench. He went flying, crashing into the rough asphalt.

“FUCK!” He yelled in reflex. John looked back to see George running after them with a few other group members. John knew they wouldn’t stop.

“Sorry, I’m stealing Alex!” John yelped and yanked the other kid up by his arm and kept gasped, fazed slightly. Alex’s face was messed up, scrapes and rock on him. “Shit.” They snapped out of it when George yelled. Head pounding with his heart, Alex took the lead again and began darting in the direction of his house. His face stung. John’s forming bruises were pulsing. Alex’s nose started to bleed. He could taste iron in his mouth.

He got to his house in record time, neither of them daring to looking back. Alex pulled a house key out of his pocket and fumbled with the lock. “Stupid adrenaline making me shake so hard-” It slipped in, it turned, clicked, and Alex shoved it open, shoved John inside, leaped in, and slammed the door. The lock clicked once again and Alex turned the deadbolt. He turned and saw John on the floor, panting. Mr. Washington was still at school, grading papers. “S- sorry.” John waved his hand, motioned to Alex that it was fine. Alex joined John on the cold, wood floor. He was sweating, the floor felt nice.

They laid like that for some time.

“Thanks,” John said breathlessly.

“What the heck happened?”

“Charles and I got into an argument, then his group made him fight me. With them all there, it really wouldn’t have mattered if I won or lost,” John explained. He laughed. “He really beat me up, though. Aimed for the torso.” He turned to Alex. “You soared over that bench, dude.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to really feel it.”

“Eliza looked so startled when you just boomed ‘fuck’,” John laughed, then coughed.

“Yeah, I was a little distracted, and not wearing glasses from gym.” He pulled them from his pocket. Thank God they were in a case. He slipped them on. They laid a little longer. Alex heaved up, stretching. “C’mon, you’re bleeding, I’m bleeding, let’s get patched up.” He held out his hand for John. John looked at it a second, then grabbed it. Alex helped John get up, and John trailed behind him while he was led upstairs to the bathroom. John sat on the counter

Alex opened a cupboard and pulled out a box with bottles and bandages and stuff in it. “Holy shit,” he gasped when he looked in the mirror. Yikes. He pulled out a small white bottle. The lid popped off and four bright orange tablets fell to his hand. He held two to John and held a cup on the counter. John put sink water into it and downed the pain meds. Alex got cotton balls and put water on them. He took John’s hand.

“I can do it myse-”

“Shut the fuck up, Jack,” Alex commanded. John’s eyebrows went up, but he didn’t say anything. Not a lot of people called him that. He wiped the blood off his knuckles, then opened another cupboard below the sink, and grabbed another bottle. After glancing at the back of it, Alex got new cotton balls and poured whatever it was them over the sink. He pressed them to John’s hands. He flinched, yanking his hand away. Alex gave him a deadpan look, he looked so done with everything. John hesitantly gave it back and Alex pressed the alcohol into John’s knuckles. John reached for paper towel and held the wet paper towel to his bleeding lip.

His bruises were really blooming. Most were a dark purple or even black. Hints of green and yellow surrounded the ones he could see. What did his chest look like? Alex wrapped his fist in some gauze thing, then went to his face and hands.

John could see tears building in Alex’s eyes from just putting water on his cuts and scrapes. John got paper towel and put alcohol on it. Cotton balls were too small for this. He yanked Alex’s hand and started to press the paper towel to it. Alex yelped, a tear spilling from his eye. “Why’d you do it?” John asked.

“Wha-?”

“You know what I’m asking.” John put the bloody towel aside with the other used items. He went for the gauze, setting it next to him.

“I-” Alex searched for an explanation. “I just heard you scream, and I just… I’m not walking away from that.” John hummed, working on Alex’s other hand. “God, using a pencil’s going to suck.” John winced at the thought. John wrapped his other hand. He pulled Alex’s glasses off him.

“Close your eyes.” He did, John pressed more paper towel to his face. He wiped any tears that Alex couldn’t stop. They probably hurt, salt water. There was something soothing but unnerving at the same time about fixing up his wounds. John searched the box and got bandaids.

“Think they’ll say something?” Alex wondered.

“Doubt it.”

“Will you?”

“I’d be suspended, too. I punched.”

“You were provoked-”

“They don’t care.” John slid off the counter and the two threw away the bloodied paper towels, cotton balls, and bandage wrappings. Alex muttered about his glasses and wandered back to his room to search for his black ones. John followed, pulling his phone out. “Hey, I hate to ask this, but can I crash here tonight?”

“Sure,” Alex answered absentmindedly, searching through drawers in his desk. John texted his sister and dad in a group chat. Eliza was blowing up his phone, so were her sisters, in different group chats and individually. John took a selfie with Alex in the bathroom and sent them all a “we’re fine dont worry”. “Aha!” Alex slipped on the black frames. “Vision, sweet vision.” The picture made the phone blow up more.

“I’m going to facetime Eliza,” John announced as he pressed the button. It only rang once. Three voices erupted as soon as the videochat loaded. Alex sat on his bed and patted next to him. John took the hint and sat down, holding the phone out so everybody could see each other.

“Oh my lord, Alex! Your face!” Eliza cried.

“What the hell, you guys!” Peggy screamed. Alex noticed that they were in Eliza’s room. Had it really been that long? They’re already back home?

“Sorry, Alex had to play knight-in-shining-armor,” John joked.

“What happened? Why were George and his goons after you?” Eliza asked. John recited what he told Alex and told her about how he’d get suspended if the girls said anything. “Well, Washington is going to notice!”

“Alex tripped, I fell down the stairs. I mean, there are like a hundred of them.” Eliza pouted. “We’re fine, Eliza, promise. I can feel the pain meds kicking in. I’m just glad I have a good phone case.”

“Remind you to take my blue glasses again, Betsey,” Alex chimed in.

“Alex! Why do you sound like someone punched your throat?” Eliza asked.

“It’s nothing, I’m alright. Nothing’s broken or sprained.”

“Well, yeah, but we don’t exactly know the complete damage,” John smiled sheepishly.

“What?”

“My torso.”

“What about it?” Angelica asked.

“Well, I know it’s definitely bruised, but I don’t know how much.” John noticed Alex staring at his lower back. “What?”

“There’s uh,” he whispered, “Blood soaking through your shirt.”

“Ah, crap!” John tugged it off, “Ugh! How am I going to get that out?”

“What?” Peggy asked. John had stood up and was out of the frame. Alex’s mouth was agape. Bruises littered John’s body like a demented painting, there was a slice across his lower back. Not deep, but bleeding. “What are you looking at, Alex?”

“Uh, I’m going to go. Thanks for checking up on us!” He hung up John’s phone and rushed him back to the bathroom. “That’s going to get on your pants if we don’t hurry.”

“What? What is it?” Alex presses wet paper towel against John’s back.

“Did someone have a fucking knife?!” Alex yanked the box back out.

“I mean someone had a pocket knife, but I wasn’t fighting them? Do I have a stab wound? My shirt didn’t even have a rip!”

“Yeah, weird? Maybe it was rolled up a bit. No, a slice, thankfully. This’ll hurt a lot more, though.” Alex removed the water paper towel and replaced it with an alcohol doused one. John squeaked at the sudden, stinging pain and gripped the counter. Alex looked at the mirror so he could see John’s face and felt empathy stab him. Not sure what to really do, he rubbed John’s back. Still bleeding. He got another paper towel. “This could actually scar. I don’t think you’ll need stitches or anything, though.” Even the big bandaids were a bit too small, so Alex just wrapped gauze around John’s lower back.

“Can I steal a shirt?” John asked.

“Yeah, totally, yeah.” Now that the blood was taken care of, Alex was suddenly aware that John was shirtless in his house. “I’ll go get one.” He fast walked back to his room, face reddening. He got a black one, in case John bled a lot. He returned and threw it at his face. “Ahhh…” He looked it his own shirt in the mirror. There were a few bloody hand marks. He sighed and went to get another t-shirt. When he came back again, in the new shirt, John had his shirt on. It was a little small, but whatever.

Alex rummaged under the sink and got a stain remover and threw the shirts into the sink to soak. He turned to John and smiled. “Wanna snack or something?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ANGST  
> okay so for those who skipped:  
> Alex finds john fighting charels lee with george king's group backing him, alex grabs john and they s p r i n t away. But alex is clumsy and trips, going FLYING, on a bench which cuts up his face.  
> John and alex run to alex's to treat each others wounds and its touching but still angsty  
> The schuylers video chat them to find out what happened when alex sees that john has a red patch on his shirt and they run back to the bathroom to patch it up
> 
> Alex gets briefly flustered about shirtless john and gets him a shirt


	7. Work and Ships

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (And so the balence shifts)

They were kinda doing their own thing at Alex’s house. Alex was typing away, the clicking of his keyboard filling the near silent room. John had ear buds in, watching The Office on Netflix. He did that night’s homework a while ago, yet Alex was still going. John looked at the clock next to Alex’s bed to see that it was twelve thirty.

“Alex?”

“Hm?”

“Don’t you wanna go to sleep?”

“You can, if you want.”

“Dude, we both need rest with what happened.

“I wanna finish this paper.”

“How many words left?” Alex clicked a word count.

“A thousandish.”

“Alex, it can wait. You’ve written enough papers, anyway.”

“This one’s required.”

“It’ll suck if you write it on low brain power, though.”

“That’s what editing is for, John.”

“Oh my God, look at me, will you?” Alex paused to look at John. He was sprawled out, glaring at him dead in the eyes. The too-small shirt needed to be adjusted but John was tired of fixing it, so it was like a semi crop top at this point. Alex felt his face get a little warmer. “Go to sleep?” Alex took a deep breath, John smiled, had he gotten through to him?

“Sorry, John.” John huffed. He went and turned the light off.

“Of course.” Alex’s keyboard glowed in the dark. Why was John surprised? He trudged over to Alex and saw he was on Google Docs, so it’d be saving automatically. John shut the laptop.

“John!” Alex said accusingly. John picked up Alex by the torso. “JOHN!” He carried Alex to his bed and tumbled with him onto it. “Let me go! I gotta finish that!”

“You will go to sleep if I have to make you.” He pulled Alex’s glasses off again and put them on his night stand. “G’night.”

“John, I swear to the lord almighty, if you don’t let me go-” John shushed him. After a while of Alex wriggling, trying to escape, Alex groaned and went limp. He gave in.

“I’ll make you breakfast or something. G’night.”

“Night,” Alex grumbled.

Alex jolted at the sound of his alarm. He sat up and slid his glasses on. John was gone. His stuff was still there, but he wasn’t in the room. Alex slid out of bed, threw on some clothes, and walked downstairs. He saw John by the stove. “John? What’re you doing?” He yawned.

“I said I’d make breakfast.”

“You didn’t have to…” he walked up to him and saw that he was making bacon. “Thanks, though.”

“Yeah. Your dog’s adorable, by the way.”

“Ben? That’s G Wash’s,” Alex chuckled, “He loves dogs, if I don’t go with him to the pet store for dog food, I bet he’d adopt every one there.” John put the bacon onto some paper towels and handed one to Alex. “Thanks.”

They ate quickly, Alex and John packed their stuff, John stole more clothes, and they headed off to school. They broke apart for their classes, kind of forgetting their wounds until Alex noticed people staring. Alex walked into history class cringing because he had avoided Washington last night, claimed to have eaten already and that John was over. He turned his head from the teacher and sat at his desk.

“Good morning, A-” Burr gasped “-Dude!” Alex attempted to shush him but got Washington’s attention by accident. His eyes were wide in shock, he motioned for Alex to get over there. Alex groaned and dragged his lead feet to his foster dad. Burr looked sorry.

“Son, what-”

“I’m not your son,” Alex interrupted.

“Alex. What happened to your face?”

“Well, not just my face, I have a bruise on my leg-” he looked into Washington’s eyes “-Not helping. I tripped on a bench when I was running. I didn’t see it.”

“Jesus, you look horrible,” Washington groaned, “Get more sleep, maybe then you’ll be more aware of your surroundings.”

“Noted,” Alex lied. Avoiding further questioning, Alex walked back to his seat. Like one does when they go to school with injuries, Alex got bombarded by questions of what happened. He’d just reply simply with “tripped”. Laf kept on giving him concerned glances in math. When he got to lunch, the questions grew, since he sat next to John.

Eliza shrieked when she saw them and ranted as quickly as Alexander about “Are you okay? What happened? Why’d you hang up?” and other things like that. Alex and John assured her that they were fine. Laf gave them a concerned, yet accusing stare with a pout. John knew that he didn’t believe “I tripped” or “I fell” because he’d used those excuses before.

When George King walked by Alex stared daggers at him. The air around him seemed heavier, tense, dark as he made eye contact. King was obviously uncomfortable considering Alex’s usual upbeat, humored antagonizing rather than serious threats. Eliza noticed and she, too, grew uncomfortable. She grabbed his clenched fist on the table and the aura immediately broke. Which, if anything, was even more unsettling. Charles Lee passed and Laf noticed that he also looked like he “fell down the stairs”. He shot a look to John who avoided the eye contact shamefully. “Alexandre, fais que John me regarde.”

“Just say it yourself?” Alex responded.

“Quelque chose est arrivé? Pourquoi John est-il dans votre chemise?” His tone got a little lighter in the second question. Eliza’s head snapped to John.

“Oh my God, he is in Alex’s shirt!” She grinned.

“How do you know that’s even my shirt?” Alex retorted.

“What’s happening?” John asked. “I stole his shirt because I ruined my other one.”

“Oh?” Laf smiled.

“Lafayette, no,” Alex said defensively.

“You both have bags under your eyes, too-”

“Stop,” Alex crossed his arms.

“Wait- what-?” John realized what Laf was implying and lit up like a light bulb. “Laf, no! He’s dating Eliza!”

“They’re polyamorous-”

“Nothing happened, oh my Jesus, John got blood on his shirt, okay?” Alex said. A tense silence followed. “I mean, I did, too, so- Oh shit, they’re still in the sink!”

“No, I rang them up, they’re drying on your bathtub because I don’t know where your laundry room is,” John said.

“Dude, how early did you wake up?” John shrugged in response.

“But John doesn’t have any cuts.” Lafayette looked back at him. “He has bruises, he fell down the stairs, right, John-?”

“-My blood.” Alex cut him off. “I got blood on my hands and it came off on his shirt a bit.” Alex yawned.

“My friend, how much sleep did you get last night?” Laf crossed his arms.

“More than usual, actually.”

“You went to sleep at like one am!”

“More than usual,” Alex repeated.

“You’re going to work yourself to death,” Eliza frowned, “What you’ve written is enough.”

“It doesn’t need to be enough, it needs to exceed expectations,” Alex replied curtly. John opened his mouth to retort, but Angelica shook her head at him, gesturing him not to. He closed his mouth and went back to his food.

Alex proceeded to work himself to death. Exams were approaching and he was getting extremely stressed with the amount of work he had to get done. He actually got sick.

Alex often got colds, but he rarely got sick. His head was pounding like a second heartbeat, his stomach felt horrible, and he felt weak. He still continued to go to school and stay up to about four thirty am, though. He didn’t eat much because he was either studying or writing. Everyone was insisting he took a break, but he shrugged it off, which was pissing off Eliza.

One day, Alex passed out in history class. Only Washington and Aaron noticed. Washington let him sleep through class and when class was let out, Washington sighed, crossed his arms, and pinched the bridge of his nose. He didn’t have a class that period, so the room was empty except for him and Alex. He walked over, sat where Aaron usually did, and gently shook Alex’s arm.

Alex jerked up, “SEVENTEEN EIGHTY-THREE!” He looked around frantically with a confused expression. “I slept through class?” He said in a panicked voice, “I couldn’t have! I needed to pay atte-”

“Okay, Dad time,” George interrupted, “Alex, you’re exhausted, maybe you should take a break, let the extra essays go, son.”

“‘M not your son,” Alex mumbled, “and I need to get some of the required papers done-”

“The papers are required because usually that’s all a student will do, the required amount,” George said, “You, however, have written twenty more essays than necessary. Not to mention each one was at least five pages more than required. I think you’ve done enough.”

“But I have my secondary part in the-”

“Son, you-”

“Stop calling me that!” He boomed. He flinched from his own voice, scared that he angered Washington.

“Go home, Alexander.”

“But-”

“-Go. Home.” Silence hung in the air like lead. “I’ll sign you out.” Alex gloomily threw on his bag and stood up to leave. As if to prove Washington’s point, Alex’s vision blurred for a moment when he stood dizzily. Alex wandered home to get some rest.

A few days later, George noticed some other kids getting more stressed than usual. Project work time became significantly quieter amongst the Rebels and louder among the Loyalists. George walked over to John, Lafayette, and Hercules.

“Why’s everyone been so quiet, lately?” He asked. They exchanged a nervous look.

“Well, you see…” John trailed off.

“The truth is that Alex took on a lot as his secondary part in the project,” Hercules said.

“It could possibly have been that much,” Washington chuckled.

“G-Wash,” Lafayette deadpanned, “Alex agreed to edit everyone’s work. We are doomed without him.”

“Everyone?”

“Everyone,” John whispered.

“You know Alex,” Herc said, “He was going to do it all in one day.”

“That means nobody has their work edited and this is due in like two days,” Lafayette said in a defeated voice, “We need our right hand man back.” Washington face palmed and groaned.

“Why is he like this?” He mumbled as he walked away. He fell into his chair and grabbed his cell phone.

**GWash: Alexander, if you edit everybody’s work, do you promise to get rest and eat?**

**Alex: YES**

**Alex: THANK YOU GEORGE**

**Alex: I AM DYING OF BOREDOM**

Washington sent a group email to the rebels that Alex was still editing their work. A few people sighed in relief a few moments later

“Thank the lord!” John praised.

Eliza visited Alex after school. He seemed a lot better, lounged on the couch with his glasses and humming with his laptop. His hair was down, a rare sight. Eliza plopped down next to him. “So, what’d we learn?”

“Hello to you too,” Alex rolled his eyes, “Don’t make yourself pass out because then you can’t do work.”

“Close enough.” She kissed his cheek and helped him edit their classmate’s papers.

Thanks to Alex, everybody got their project parts done early enough to have enough time to study. Alex was jokingly called “The Hero of the Freshmen” because a lot of the projects wouldn’t have done so hot without his editing.

Unsurprisingly, academically, the same thing ended up happening the second semester. Including Alex tiring himself out.

Between Alexander, Eliza, and John, however, things were a bit different.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ totally didn't forget to upload this!


	8. Alex's Fancy Handwriting

“You’re still getting those weird love letters, right?” Laf asked John.

“Yup.” John was filling out a paper while reading his history textbook, like they were supposed to be doing. Laf was twirling his pen in his hand.

“Do you think they’re boys? Girls? Both? Neither?”

“I don’t know, Laf.”

“Well, they both have nice handwriting. Isn’t that a girl thing?” Herc added.

“Eliza says Alex has nice handwriting, so not necessarily,” Lafayette said, “What if it is Alex?”

“Pfff as if,” John rolled his eyes, “He calls me dude.”

“Eliza calls him dude.” Hercules commented.

“I didn’t even know that she said dude,” John glanced up a second. “Still, I don’t think so. The letters don’t really match his… Personality?” John didn’t have a word for it. Style, maybe? “He doesn’t seem very open with affection.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Lafayette laughed, “The guy flirts with everybody! For fucks sake, he sat on my lap once.”

“He also hugs Aaron a lot,” Hercules agreed.

“He flirts with Angelica, as well, now that I think about it.”

“And John Andre.”

“He even flirts with Samuel, probably just to mess with him, but still.”

“I get it, guys,” John laughed. He’d always just dismissed stuff like that as Alex being Alex.

“Didn’t you say he called you Jack, too?” Hercules asked.

“He did?” Lafayette gasped, “Nobody calls you Jack!”

“Yeah, but we were wounded and shit.”

Laf chuckled, “Romantic.”

“Shut up.”

“Wait a moment…” Lafayette put his hands on his face as he gasped in shocked realization. “John Laurens!” He whispered, “Do you have a crush on Alexander Hamilton?”

“What? Dude, no,” John smirked, “You’re the one that talks about him all the time.”

“I don’t doodle him in my sketchbook-”

“-Dude, why were you looking at my sketchbook-”

“-No changing the subject! Eliza, too.”

“I draw all my friends,” John flushed from embarrassment.

“Sure.”

“I do!” John caught Washington as he gave them a dirty look. “Let’s just get back to work.” Laf hummed a teasing song as they wrote.

  
“Oh my God, you two!” Peggy groaned, “Just tell him! What’s the worse that could happen?”

“Rejection,” Alex deadpanned.

“But at this point, it’d be for who we are as people,” Eliza slumped onto the lunch-esque table.

“Eliza, you are the best thing in our lives,” Angelica asserted.

“Yes, you are an angel, Betsey. But, I’m an asshole.” Peggy opened her mouth to deny it, but Alex said, “Don’t. I’ve accepted it.” She rolled her eyes and closed her mouth.

“Even if he does, you can just come over, get some ice cream, and cry while watching Camp Camp together or something,” Angelica suggested.

“I know I say literally everything that goes through my head,” Alex began, “but I have a cripplingly low self esteem.”

“Wow, that’s a bit dark.” Alex shrugged. The Schuyler’s father pulled up.

“How come you wait to get picked up if you can just walk home?” Alex asked as they stood up.

“Pops takes us to Starbucks,” Eliza kissed Alex’s cheek, “Bye, Alexander.”

“Bye.” He slung his backpack over his shoulder and walked home in the light, late February snow.

He face planted into his bed and groaned. “For a smartass, I sure can be a fuckin’ idiot,” said his muffled voice. He rolled over and stared at his ceiling. Eliza had gotten him those glow-in-the-dark-stars a while ago, so he had something to stare at. Geroge’s dog, Ben, jumped onto his bed. “Hey, bud.” Alex picked up the tiny pomeranian that hilariously didn’t match George. Alex thought it fit his personality, though.

“What am I going to do, Ben?” Alex asked.

He moved the dog gently like a stuffed animal and said in a high voice, “You’re going to keep dealing with your problems by ignoring them, Alex!”

“That’s unfortunately correct, Ben. You know me so well,” Alex sighed. “Why am I like this?”

“Like what-?” Alex yelped and shot up to see George.

“I thought you were staying after today?”

“There was too much chatter in my last class to take the test,” George shrugged, “No tests, no grading.”

“Oh.” George folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe.

“So, you got some teenage angst going on?”

“Yeah,” Alex sighed.

“Would it maybe have to do with that John boy?” Alex furrowed his eyebrows.

“What.”

“You know, kids like to think teachers aren’t interested in drama,” George walked over and sat with Alex and Ben on the corner of his bed, “It’s highly entertaining. Gilbert thinks you’re one of the kids writing John love letters.” He picked up the dog, places him on his lap, and began to pet him absentmindedly.

“That’s ridiculous,” Alex chuckled, “Why? What were they saying?” George raised an eyebrow. “Hey, I wanna know what people are saying behind my back.”

“Fair enough. They say it could be you because of your nice handwriting and because you’re affectionate.”

“I’m not that affectionate.”

“Then, you’re siding with John.”

“Like Lafayette’s one to talk,” Alex mumbled.

“So it is you?” Alex got up and started to tidy his desk, which he never did. “It is you.” Alex hummed in agreement. “I think you should go for it, but that’s just the old guy’s opinion.”

“You’re not old, what are you like… Thirty?”

“Forty.” Alex humed.

“I’m… Apprehensive.”

“Alex, anybody would be lucky to have you. You’ve got ambition, energy, wits, and a good sense of humor.”

“You’re just saying that as a father figure.”

“I say a lot of stuff as a father figure, Alex, and all of it is true.”

“Thanks, but… Not yet.” George stood up with the dog in his hands.

“You’re welcome.” With that, he left. Alex picked up his phone off his desk to see a message from John. Alex half smiled and opened it, falling back onto his bed.

Dropping letters had become routine. Alex and Eliza just slipped them in when they walked pass John’s locker. March went by with little incident.

Really, until April, there wasn’t anything eventful. Just several, small instances occurred. Hands grazing. Adoring each other’s laugh. Learning to say something flirtatious in Latin to make the other two smile. John kept doodling, they kept writing. Alex started bringing them coffees in the morning since they’d pass each other before class.

One interesting thing was that Aaron had figured out in, like, December. He just had a bet with a girl he’d meet, Theodosia, on how long they’d drag this on. She was betting that they’d get together by the end of the year and Aaron was in no rush to fork over money. So, it was like some romantic comedy from the sidelines.

He’d watch and sigh knowingly when either Eliza or Alex would shy away from John or vice versa. To him, it was quite obvious, but not a lot of people seemed to think so. He’d just scoff, roll his eyes, and keep walking. He tended to keep to himself, anyway.

Alex found himself death starring George King whenever he saw him around John. It was rather unsettling, so George usually walked away. Eliza had the sort of death stare where she could intimidate you while still smiling, which made it even creepier. John didn’t notice.

Alex and Eliza weren’t just focused on John. They still went out together to stuff like aquariums and shopping or just chilling at one of their places. The Schuyler house was much more alive and energetic, though.

Going over there meant you were almost guaranteed to laugh until you cried. They’d make fun of old movies and shows, play stupid games, dance poorly to loud music, and gossip. Philip, Eliza’s dad, joked about Alex practically being a Schuyler at this point.

Then came April. Eliza was sick that day, which left John alone with Alex a lot. John was having one of those gay days, y’know, like when you feel Extra Gay. Super gay. Totally gay that day. Alex was his gay target.

Alex’s smile was amazing, wide and obvious, it made John’s heart swell. John watched Alex as he scribbled absentmindedly in his Latin notebook. Little stars or dots or twinkles covered the edge of the page. It was cute, so was Alex. John had come to notice Alex’s little descriptions, like the tiny freckles he had, how he tapped his fingers on his leg when he was nervous or bored, how he’d adjust his pony tail a lot if he was stressed. John had noticed that if Alex laughed too hard, he’d get the hiccups, that his smile was slightly uneven, that Alex’s ears reddened a bit when he blushed. John twirled his pen in his hands, not really paying attention to the lesson.

Alex glanced over at John and John immediately went to writing notes before Alex could notice that he was staring.

Alex stared, more subtly, at John. He had a galaxy of freckles absolutely everywhere, big, brown eyes, fluffy hair, and it was mesmerizing to watch him draw. He was sweet and respectful and hilarious and a bit of a smartass, but so was he. John shook his leg absentmindedly sometimes, he’d twirl his pen or pencil, he sketched in the margins of his notes. Alex doodled, John drew. Tiny characters, animals, or whatever littered his journals.

John glanced back at Alex, who averted his eyes back to his notes. It was somehow both comfortable and tense between the two at the same time. John sighed in relief at the bell. Everybody grabbed homework, packed up their stuff, and left. Alex made his way to sit with Peggy and Angelica, like usual. As he turned the corner from the back of the building, where he exited, John burst out from the same door and trotted up to Alex.

“Hey!” He let out. Alex stopped and turned around, hands in his pockets.

“Yeah, John?” John handed Alex two pieces of paper. One, Alex recognized, was a note he’d left John anonymously in his locket. The other was a reminder not he’d written John.

“Proof.”

“Proof-” Alex’s eyes widened. His handwriting. It’d given it away. Alex’s face flushed immediately. “John- I- um- I-”

“Would you like to go out for a coffee with me tomorrow?” John cut him off. His cheeks were lighting up, too.

“I- yeah, of course!” Alex stuttered, “Wait, in a gay way?”

“In a gay way!” John confirmed.

“Yeah, I- Yeah!” Alex beamed, “text me details?”

“Yes, as soon as I get home.”

“Cool!”

“Cool!” John smiled, “I- I have to go.”

“Oh, yeah,” Alex started walking backwards, “See you tomorrow!”

“See you!” John ran back around the corner, disappearing. Alex turned around to walk forwards. As he got closer to the sisters, Alex added a skip to his step and started to cheer. He practically shoved himself into a seat.

“What’s got you so happy?”

“JOHN FOUND OUT!” Alex threw his hands up in excitement.

“Really?!” Peggy smiled. Alex nodded, a stupid smile on his face.

“Finally!” Angelica groaned.

John turned the corner and went into a full on sprint. “I’ve got a date with Alex,” he whispered, a grin taking up his entire face, “I’ve got a date with Alex!” He added a bounce to his run and squealed quietly. “Yes!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Screaming)  
> Some Gay because it's my Birth Day


	9. Teenage Dating

Alex waited nervously in a coffee shop, he had arrived early to not be late, but instead, he was just way too early. He was scrolling through social media to distract himself. What if he said something stupid? Well, he did that a lot. But, what if he said something stupid that made John uncomfortable? His mind raced faster than track sprinters and he was spiraling into a pit of nervousness and anxiety.

“Oh, hey, Alex!” Alex looked up to see John with a nervous smile, “I’m not late am I? Did you wait long?” Alex smiled and stood up, banging his knee on the table. He flinched and John tried not to laugh.

“Uh, no, I just got here a minute or so ago,” he lied, too embarrassed to admit that he was there for fifteen minutes or so. His leg hurt but he forced himself to ignore it.

“Well, let’s go get something to drink or whatever,” John said. Alex nodded and they went up to the counter. “Oh! Um, hello, Theodosia,” John greeted. The barista smiled at the two.

“Hey, John,” she looked to Alex who was inspecting the snacks in the glass case, “Alex, too.”

“Hello, Theo.”

“How’s Eliza?” Oh, that’s right, Eliza had become Theodosia’s friend. Alex didn’t remember how that happened.

“She’s doing good,” he said in a syrupy, mocking voice, “How’s Aaron?”

“I think he owes me some money,” she beamed, ignoring the sarcasm. Before either could ask, she asked them for their orders. John got just about the sweetest frappuccino possible. Alex tried to break the ice by making fun of it, but John just shot back at Alex for his plain coffee, called him an old man. Alex scoffed dramatically. Theo told them the total and Alex paid without hesitation.

“I could’ve-”

“Nope,” Alex smiled. They went to sit at a booth.

“But, I asked you out.” Alex’s heart skipped a beat, he still couldn’t believe it. Alex shrugged. They sat across from each other. Refusing to let silence occur, they frantically searched for a topic.

“So,” Alex tried, “Why do you think Aaron owes Theodosia money?” John pretended to think deeply.

“Maybe they have a bet?”

“Well, probably,” Alex sipped his drink, “You don’t think they bet on us, do you?” John snickered.

“Then Theo has more faith in us than Aaron.”

“How dare he,” Alex scoffed in faux offence. John absentmindedly stirred the whipped cream into his drink as he laughed. Alex could feel his face radiating heat. Was John nervous, too? The answer was yes, very much so. He almost sipped from the straw and moved the cup like he was drinking without a spoon but caught himself just before mortifying himself. Alex didn’t seem to notice. He noticed Alex’s red cheeks and couldn’t tell if it was from laughing or nervousness or whatever. They were both more giggly than usual.

Theodosia sent a snapchat of them and posted it on her story with a caption of cash emojis and “Fork it over, Aaron”.

John was pretty tall and accidentally kicked Alex under the table. “Oh, sorry- wait.” He grinned. “Can you not completely reach the floor?” Alex stiffened. He inched to the edge of the booth seat so his feet could press flat on the ground. John was losing it, he tried to not burst out laughing by just giggling. Alex wasn’t the tallest crayon in the box.

“Don’t patronize me,” he joked.

“It’s cute!” John said, a smile in his voice but not laughing anymore. Alex flushed more, if that was possible. He drank from his coffee so he didn’t have to say anything. John’s phone buzzed and he casually flipped it over to check it but rolled his eyes and put it on do not disturb.

“Who is it?” Alex asked.

“Nothing,” John insisted. He quietly added, “Laf’s just being gross.” Alex smiled and raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you know him.” Alex smiled and nodded.

“Do you think he texted me?” Alex asked.

“God, I hope not,” John laughed. Alex checked his phone and, surprisingly, Eliza was teasing him, not Laf. “He did, didn’t he?”

“Uh, nope,” Alex put the phone back on the table.

“Wait, who was that, then?” John grinned.

“Eliza,” Alex mumbled.

“She doesn’t seem the teasing type.”

“She’ll only make fun of you if she can do it accurately.”

“That’s terrifying.” Alex nodded in fake solemn. “Completely random, would you ever get a tattoo?” Alex hummed, trying to think.

“In theory,” he drawled, like he was still thinking. “You?”

“Maybe, if I got a good idea for one.” They kept talking, jumping from topic to topic. There were occasional lulls when they’d drink from their cup, but they’d pushed past the overwhelming nervousness. The hour flew by and John groaned when he checked the time. “It’s already two.” Alex frowned and John compared him to a sad puppy in his head.

“Well, if you’re leaving, I’m leaving.” So, they both stood up and left the coffee shop together. They’d both biked there so they fiddled with bike locks and said goodbye at the bicycle parking. Both being nervous, still, they hugged each other. They broke apart when John noticed Alex was on his toes and starting giggling. Alex huffed and let go, not really annoyed.

“Bye, Alex!” John called, kicking the metal stick that kept his bike up.

“See ya, John!” He replied. They both sped away, the wind against their face cooling them off. Alex couldn’t stop smiling. He got home soon, opened the door, announced he was back, and sped up to his room to text Eliza. When he lit up his phone, he saw a few snapchats from classmates. Each asked about John. Oh, guess that was public. He shrugged it off and just posted something telling everyone to “chill tf out yall lmao” on his story. He then went to Eliza.

They freaked out together, a lot of Alex’s texts in all caps. John, meanwhile, was text-yelling, playfully, at Laf.

The next school day, nobody would let them be. People would approach either Eliza, Alexander, or John and ask about it. They had to insist that there was no cheating, and occasionally, tell someone what polyamory was. John got a few glares from George King and his goons, and they got glares back from Alex.

At lunch, John asked if Eliza was writing the other notes. She beamed and proudly announced that he was right. Laf groaned a “Called it!” and everybody murmured in agreement that it was predictable if Alex wrote letters, Eliza would, too.

John quietly asked Eliza out who just beamed even more and said yes. They agreed to text later to figure out what’d they do.

They later agreed to go out to a movie together, one of those super cheesy ones just to laugh at.

They walked into the near empty theater and took seats near the center with that huge popcorn you can get. Alex got revenge and sent Eliza teasing texts the whole time, even if her phone was on do not disturb.

Eliza and John laughed a lot at the movie, she’d leaned against him with a big grin and his face was completely pink. How had he gotten so lucky? Who knows, he was just glad he did.

A movie was much more chill than a coffee date, little to no talking necessary. Just time together. John often whispered a joke about the movie to her so she’d have to suppress her laughter. They had that “sappy teen dating” aura around them. She even hooked her arm around his.

So, they stated to all date each other. Aaron felt bad for people at his lunch table because they’d hide it in class, but practically had a “We’re Dating” sign hung up behind them at lunch. Alex sat between the two and they just leaned on him the whole time. Everyone at the table just shrugged it off and talked to them like normal. There was a whole lot more material for suggestive jokes now, Alex realized when Laf expresses that he had a lot more gay jokes than straight jokes.

They were painfully cheesy or forced, but still worth at least a chuckle.

Alex and Eliza wanted to get something for John, and they knew just what to get.

Once after school, Alex approached John with a tiny green box. “We just wanted you to match,” he said as John opened the box to find two Earth earrings. Like Alex’s sun necklace/bracelet and Eliza’s moon necklace. John stared at them blankly, unable to process it. “D-do you like them?” Alex asked, nervous about the delayed reaction. John looked up at Alex with a nervous grin before quickly getting inches apart and closing that space between them.

Now, Alex had a delayed reaction. He hadn’t expected it, oh my god John was kissing him, oh my god! John stepped back, face like a tomato. “They’re amazing, thank you!” Before he could respond, John dashed away.

Alex stood, rooted in his spot. Oh my god. He put his hand over his mouth and internally shrieked. He walked over to the Schuylers in a daze that they interrogated.

“So, did he like the earrings?” Eliza asked.

“It’s safe to say ‘yes’,” Alex said quietly.

“What was his reaction? Did he gasp? Did he smile?” Eliza questioned. Alex finally smiled.

“H-he kissed me,” he said. Eliza screamed like she was fangirling.

“I guess he really liked the gesture!” Eliza cheered, “Oh, we should all get together before summer starts. Or maybe just as it ends, cause, y’know, it’s the last week.”

“We can text him, we can probably all hang out at my place, just order a pizza or whatever,” Alex offered.

“Sounds like a plan, Alexander,” she agreed with determination in her eyes.

They checked with everybody, and it worked out. They’d get together the first saturday of the summer, just to chill. They were all really excited, even if it was just a small get together. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally they actually go on dates oml


	10. Take a Break!

“I’m just saying,” John scoffed, “Why would you chose to do optional, Summer work!” Alex sat between Eliza and John, each having their legs draped across Alex comfortably. Alex was resting a pop can on one of John’s legs.

“I like work,” Alex smiled.

“I think we know this by now,” Eliza deadpanned. “Alexander, this is Summer vacation! Take a break.”

“It’s not my fault both of you are going away for the summer,” Alex pouted

“You can come with!” Eliza offered. Alex shifted as much as he could.

“I’m not comfortable with your dad spending that much money on me,” he mumbled. Eliza groaned but smiled.

“Fine, write your essays, then,” she teased.

“Where’d you say you were going again?” John asked Eliza.

“All the way to Florida,” she used her hand to gesture a wave, “We’re going to the ocean and the sun.”

“Yeah, but, where in Florida?” John asked, slower this time.

“Miami.” John gasped, excited. “What?”

“That’s where I’m going!”

“No way! Maybe we’ll see each other!”

“I’m requiring you both to send me pictures of the ocean and stuff,” Alex said sternly.

“Are you sure you can’t go,” John whined, gently shaking his shoulder. Alex made an expression that answered his question. “You’re no fun, Alex.”

“Oh please,” Alex picked up his pop to take a sip, “I’m the best person ever- AH!” He surged to stand, shoving their legs off him. “Shit, I liked this hoodie.” On his light grey hoodie was a dark soon-to-be-stain.

“Eliza, our knight in shining armor spared our legs,” John said dramatically, wiping a fake tear from his eye.

“Thank you for your sacrifice, sir Alexander!” She clutched her heart. They chuckled and Alex cracked a smile.

“I can feel this soaking my shirt, be right back.” He walked up the stairs to his room, taking his tops off on the way and throwing them in the washer with stain removal. He was a billion percent certain that this was not how you removed stains, but whatever. He snagged a shirt and a hoodie, that he stole from John, and put it on. He began his journey back downstairs. “Alright, I’m back-”

He saw them kissing and fell down the fucking stairs.

“Oh my God, Alex!” John laughed, already a bit pink in the face. “Are you okay?” Eliza was too busy cackling at Alex.

“I’M,” he laid at the bottom of the stairs, facing the ceiling, searching for a word, “I’M SHOOK!” Eliza laughed harder, clutching her sides.

“‘Shook’!” She laughed.

“The two most adorable people in the world did a cute thing,” he said wistfully, “I’m dead.”

“You’re not dead, stand up,” John grinned at him. Alex got up, laughing lightly and rubbing his back.

He imitated an old man’s voice, “My back!”

“Oh, shut up, siddown,” John laughed. Alex fell onto the couch, laying across it on John and Eliza.

“Payback for being your foot stool,” Alex explained briefly.

“Hey, ‘Liza?”

“Yes, Johnny?”

“If Alex is dead, do you think I can bring him back to life?”

“Oh my God, John,” Eliza snickered.

“What?” Alex asked, confused. John just laughed at him. Leaned down, and pressed his lips to Alex. Alex’s face immediately became comparable to a fire truck. John sat back up to laugh at Alex’s shocked, red expression.

“Gaaaay,” Eliza jokingly drawled, “Aw, look at his heart eyes!”

“You two are going to give me a heart attack eventually,” Alex fake-complained.

“You love it,” Eliza stated.

“You’re far too much, I don’t deserve you both,” Alex claimed.

“No you don’t,” John joked, “Eliza’s rich. Princess and the pauper.”

“Isn’t that a Barbie movie?” Eliza asked.

“It is most definitely a Barbie movie,” Alex confirmed, “You made me watch it with you.”

“I needed to see if you shipped the princess and the pauper girl!” Eliza defended.

“Did he?”

“He did.”

“Nice.” They passed time joking, showing each other funny posts and or memes, grabbing snacks, and other things of the sort. GWash, in a desperate attempt to avoid his teenaged students in puppy love, stayed in his room. Nobody wanted to experience that awkwardness.

Eliza had to leave first, and groaned at the doorbell. They all got up to walk her to said door. “Bye, boys,” she sighed, “I’m going to miss you, Alex.”

“We can text and stuff,” he assured her. She half smiled and kissed both of their cheeks.

“Bye,” they said in unison. Eliza waved and left, walking to her car. The two walked back to the couch and sat back down. John sat on his phone with Alex’s head on his lap, also on his phone. The mood was less energetic without Eliza.

“Hey,” John said.

“Hey,” Alex said.

“I’ve been looking for that hoodie,” he smirked.

“Uhhh what hoodie. This one’s mine,” Alex smiled, “There’s no way you’re taking it.”

“Stealing is bad,” John said in a faux parental voice.

“Guess I’m a bad boy, then.” John snorted and started laughing to the point where he had to cover his face. Alex laughed at him laughing.

“You fuckn’ dork!” John wheezed.

“I thought I had more of a nerd thing going,” Alex said, a smile in his voice.

“Whatever, Alex,” John chuckled, finally chilling with the laughter, “I’m crying, why was that so funny to me.”

“Probably because it is very much not true and the baddest thing I’ve done this year was give people dirty looks.”

“This year?” John questioned.

“Oh, I was totally a little shit when I was younger.”

“You still are a little shit, Alex.” Alex clutched his heart in offence. John snickered at him. He leaned down to kiss Alex again, but they both jerked at the doorbell. “He’s early.”

“Well, he can wait a few seconds,” Alex said, closing the space between them for a few moments. John sat up again.

“I really should go, Alex,” he smiled warmly. A second ring.

“Fine,” Alex sighed. He moved so John could get up. “Have fun in Florida.”

“Have fun writing papers, Alex,” John opened the door, “Bye!”

“Thanks for stopping by,” Alex waved. The door closed and Alex stood with his hands in his pockets in the middle of the living room. He turned at the sound of footsteps.

“Oh, did they leave?” George asked. Alex nodded. “Wanna help me make spaghetti?” Alex smiled and followed George to the kitchen.

 

Alex spun around in his spinny chair. “What the heck was that word…” He mumbled out loud, still spinning. He’d looked for it on google and thesaurus.com, but still, nothing. He went to his last resort, he saw it on tumblr in the first place, maybe he tagged it for later. He did! Thank God, that was bugging him! Smaragdine. He didn’t want to call emeralds emerald-green in his paper on some obscure book only schools care about.

Another time, he sat in front of his laptop, four-hundred words in, head propped on his hand and a pencil in the other as he looked for something in his notes. Bored, he nonchalantly threw his pencil against the wall, but the eraser hit the wall and the pencil just bounced back, hitting him in the face.

Once, he had just finished a paper when his phone buzzed. He picked it up to see a selfie of Eliza and John at the beach. They were smiling brightly and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Alex smiled and wondered how he got so lucky.

They couldn’t text often, since they were busy, but when they could they texted a long time. They started a joke that outer space related flirts were hilarious because of the jewelry. So, that happened a lot.

Yet another time, he was having trouble getting through a certain paragraph and found himself quietly singing. “When I’m alone in my room, sometimes I stare at the wall, on this particular page, I felt my conscious stall, I hear a-” there’s a knock on his door. He’d been told not to answer the door when George wasn’t home, so he shrugged it off. They knocked again. Alex peered through his window at the porch to see a girl from his grade. “What the fuck?” He muttered. Confused, he went down the stairs and opened the door. “Hello?”

“Hi,” a girl breathed. She had long, dark brown curly hair and bright red lipstick.

“Can I help you?” Alex asked skeptically.

“If it’s not too much of a bother, could I please come in? I want to talk to you about something.” She looked a little paranoid. Maybe someone was following her?

“I- sure?” Alex stood aside.

“Thank you so much,” she beamed.

“Maria, right?” He closed the door.

“Maria Lewis,” she confirmed.

“What business do you have with me?” Alex crossed his arms, “I’ve talked with you maybe once or twice.”

“I know,” she cringed, “I know, I’m really sorry to show up without contacting you, I’ll explain, but first; you’re the really good writer, right?”

“Not to brag, but I like to think so.”

“I want you to write something for me, if that’s alright.” Alex raised his eyebrow, intrigued. Nobody had asked him to write anything before. What could be so urgent that she had to come in person?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SAY NOOO TO THIS! SAY NOOO TO THIS!


	11. Thomas Jefferson's Coming Home!

Alex came back downstairs, laptop open and in hands. “Alright,” he plopped down on his couch, opening an empty doc for notes, “So, what’d you want me to write?” Maria  
nervously sat next to Alex nervously, hesitating.

“Do you promise not to tell anybody until this is published?” She asked.

“Okay, I don’t see why not-”

“Promise,” she said, a bit more sternly than she had before. Alex got a sense this was important.

“Promise,” he nodded, smile dropping, “If this is so important, why don’t you write it?” She blushed.

“I- I suck at writing. Like, a lot,” she muttered, “Besides, you’re, like, the best writer in the grade besides, maybe, Thomas Jefferson.”

“Who?” he was certain he didn’t know any “Thomas Jefferson”.

“He was in France last year as a transfer student, he’ll come back next year,” Maria shrugged it off.

“Cool, can’t wait to meet him,” Alex stated, “Anyway.”

“Anyway…” She took a deep breath and poured her soul out about a boy in their grade named “James Reynolds” who she was trapped in a relationship with. He constantly stole money from her, looked through her phone, social media, and was, to put it lightly, a jerk. Alex grew increasingly horrified as he took more notes, but kept going because she didn’t seem ready to stop any time soon. That was why she came in person, he was going to be gone for the weekend, so she showed up in person to have no evidence. No messages, not trackable, she had even left her phone at home. He was very emotionally abusive, it seemed. Her helplessness transformed into anger as she began to rant about nobody should ever date him again. No doubt she could leave if this got published, then, maybe no other girl would do that to herself if this was published. Nobody would date him, any girl could find this and leave before it was too late. That’s why she wanted that written, for everybody else's sake.

Alex ended with many, many notes and sat shocked as she closed her speech.

“So, will you write it?” She asked, “I wanna publish it in the school newspaper, maybe even online.” Alex’s paper could halt, he could not say no to this girl.

“Of course I’ll write it!” He smiled, determined.

“Thank you so much, Alex!” She beamed. “I wish I could pay you…”

“You really don’t need to-”

“Yes, I do.” She sat in thought. “How about this, I owe you.”

“Sure.” He skimmed over the notes. “I’ll make a doc and share it with you, okay? Just highlight and comment if you want me to change something.”

“Sounds like a plan.” She let out a relieved sigh. “What time is it?” Alex checked on his computer.

“Like, five.”

“I should get going. Thank you, so much,” she stood up, “Words can’t express how much this means to me, Alex.”

“No problem, I’d run out of essays, anyway,” he smiled. He waved and she walked out. Alex made a doc and shared it with her.

Time to get to work.

For the rest of his summer, he spent time writing or talking with Eliza and/or John, also, technically writing. Texting. Maria left a few comments every now and then. There was also a chat option, and they’d occasionally talk, since they both figured James wouldn’t suspect Google Docs as a form of communication. She was right, she couldn’t write for shit. Her grammar and spelling was pretty bad, but still understandable.

With all his notes, he hardly found himself stumped and wrote pretty well. It was unexpectedly lengthy and read like a news or gossip article. Maria expressed how she was really impressed by how much he could write. Soon, the end of August approached. Alex said he was almost done, and that he’d edit it through the school year. He’d add stuff if he thought of something, too. Maria, for the millionth time, thanked him and apologised for taking up his time. Alex promised that it was no problem. She reminded him to keep it secret, so she wouldn’t be caught. Alex responded, “Nobody needs to know”.

Soon, everybody was flooding back into school and summer was lamented for passing by too quickly. But, now that they were not freshmen, they could run for student president. Four people signed up, John Adams, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson. Alex internally complimented his handwriting. His lunch buddies were already hyped up, Herc claimed that he’d make t-shirts for him. Eliza and John said they’d buy five, each.

Then, Thomas entered the lunchroom. A few people beside him, he swaggered across the floor. He was dressed very nice, for a sophomore, and held an air of superiority with him. He was surrounded by people asking about France. “That Jefferson’s pretty popular, ain’t her?” John observed.

“I absolutely promise that he will get tired, talking about France, but for now-” Laf raised from his seat with a grin, ear to ear. “Thomas!” His head snapped to the side.

“Lafayette!” He nearly bounced over and the two kids hugged each other. “It’s so nice to see you again! We must get together this weekend!” He said, holding Laf at arms length.

“Oh, absolutely, I want to hear all about how France treated you,” Laf chuckled. Alex got out of his seat and made a way to introduce himself.

“Thomas, Alexander Hamilton,” he smiled politely, “I’m running for president, too”

“Oh, nice to meet you!” Thomas smiled. “Laf’s told me all about you.”

“I’ll have to promote both of you,” Laf whined. “Welp, welcome home, my friend!” He and Alex walked back.

“Just another person taller than me,” Alex sighed, sat down.

The next day, Thomas joined Alex’s history and the two nearly immediately got into a passive aggressive argument about a current event. Mr. Washington walked into the class and halted in the doorway to see the two teenagers throwing glares and pointing fingers and knew, right then, that it was a bad omen. He walked pass Alex’s desk, and pointed to it with a clipboard. “Sit down Alex, Thomas. Welcome back, by the way.”

“Thank you, Mr. Washington,” Thomas said in a completely different tone. Alex scoffed and rolled his eyes. Fake bitch.

They kept on glaring each other and correcting each other the entire class, which was quite distracting and disruptive. “Kids, please, let me teach this class.” Washington regretted teaching both U.S. History and a history of government class for both grades. This was going to be a tough school year, he could tell.

Alex was still fuming by lunch, and ranted about it the whole time. Eliza handed him a cup of cookie dough, and that quieted him for a minute or two, but he just picked right back up. John snickered, “If you already don’t like him, this election will be interesting.” Eliza nodded.

Alex, being Alex, ranted the whole lunch hour. It even got to the point where Thomas would have heard him if he wasn’t just as busy ranting about Alex. The two table’s occupants made eye contact and a few people rolled their eyes. They could tell this would be an interesting year, if this was any indication of what would happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, of course.


	12. Rising Tension

“Look what Burr said about Alex in the paper,” John said. He held his phone to Eliza. The school paper had started posting their paper online so it’d spread faster.

“Yikes,” Eliza drawled as she scrolled, “We need to find Alex before he reads this.”

“Right,” John said, “Remind him that he has people on his side ‘n stuff.” Eliza laughed.

“No, he’s going to take this personally,” Eliza said. The two opened the doors to the lunchroom, “We have to stop a homicide, John.”

“Oh! Yeah-”

“Burr!?” They cringed as their attention was caught by Alex marching up to Alex with his phone. “What is this?”

“Oh, that,” he grinned. People were starting to stare. “Well, the paper interviewed me. They’re planning on interviewing all the candidates-”

“I mean the contents!” Alex rolled his eyes, “You slandered me!”

“Please, we’re competing, Hamilton,” the last name finished with a hint of bitterness. Alex scoffed. “It’s common sense that things might not be incredibly kind.”

“I thought you were my friend,” Alex folded his arms, his phone locking audibly.

“Why’s that have to change?”

“You’re dissing me!”

“I’m just seizing an opportunity, and you know what?”

“What?” Alex nearly spit. Burr leaned forward with his arms crossed and a smirk spread on his face.

“I learned that from you.” Alex groaned and before he could say something, Eliza grabbed John’s wrist and they trotted into the situation.

“Alex! How are you today?” Eliza beamed, hugging him and dragging him away slightly.

“Why hello, Aaron!” John said, “How’re you? How’s Theodosia?” Aaron and Alex, both bewildered, answered.

“You know what, we are waiting for you at our table,” Eliza smiled. There was something off about it, it felt rather intimidating and passive aggressive, “How about you join us?” Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed him and John and lead them back to their table.

“Eliza, what are you-”

“There will be no fights, you’re done with that,” Eliza said, her pop can opening with a crack.

“I wasn’t going to fight him,” Alex said, “Physically.” Eliza turned to him and raised her eyebrow. “What?”

“I know what you look like when you’re pissed, Alexander,” she said. John was just watching like it was a soap opera or something.

“I wasn’t gonna hit him,” Alexander assured.

“Good, because anybody that hits you, I gotta hit them,” Eliza said.

“Ooh, Eliza’s gonna wreck shit!” Peggy chimed in.

“I am not!”

“So you’re protective, then?” John asked. She blushed.

“Well, I mean, sure? Not the point!” She turned to Alex. “Things stay civil with Burr and Jefferson and Adams, whoever! Okay?”

“Of course!” Alex pulled out his phone again. He glanced up and saw James Reynolds talking to Thomas. Even though they couldn’t see him, he glared at them a moment, and looked back down at his phone.

“So,” James said, “You think you can write it for me?”

“This seems like quite the stretch for fifty dollars,” Thomas smirked, “Do you have something against Hamilton? This really does not seem likely.”

“That doesn’t matter,” James said, “People will believe anything.”

“Pay upfront,” Thomas tapped his fingers on the table, “And I’ll write it for you.” James tossed a fifty dollar bill on the table. Thomas smiled and took it. “Pleasure doin’ business with you! I’ll keep in touch.”

“I’m looking forward to it,” James smirked and walked away.

For the next week or two, the two texted often about a certain article.

Speaking of articles, the president of the newspaper club got Thomas and Alex together for a debate. It wasn’t too surprising that things got a little out of hand. It was about a current event, but the insults grew more and more personal. It was hard to believe that they had only known each other for weeks, they seemed to have so much dirt on the other. The two kids taking notes were struggling to keep up with Alex and Thomas, who were shooting at each other faster than a machine gun. It was… Obvious that they didn’t think the other would make a good president.

But, it was entertaining and more relatable than the previous, dull debates. The president of the paper cut the debate short.

Just before they left, Thomas spoke up so only Alex could hear. “Well, when Daddy’s a teacher, of course you could win.” Alex turned to him and his stupid smirk that Alex had grown to expect. For once, Alex decided to pick his battles. He rolled his eyes and left quickly.

His temper seemed to only shrink.

“He said what now?” John asked, popping a bag of chips open. “I don’t think that word can be used for father figures if you’re over eight or something.”

“That’s besides the point,” Alex scoffed. He was pacing the kitchen, George’s dog following him.

“Your dog is amazing, it’s like a cotton ball,” John chuckled. He knew what he said wouldn’t calm down Alex much, he just needed to vent. Alex picked up the dog and continued walking. “Aw!”

“Why did Thomas have to be such a dick!” Alex groaned, “His talent for writing is being wasted on his personality.”

“Careful, Al,” John ate a chip, “That was vaguely a compliment.” Alex sighed and leaned on the counter with John.

“Why are you taller than me?” Alex pouted.

“So you have to do the cheesy tippy-toe thing if you wanna kiss me,” John teased, “‘Sides, it makes you cute.”

“How dare you, I’m hot.”

“Yeah, hotheaded-” Alex gently punched John’s arm. A comfortable silence followed. The dog tried to jump from Alex’s arms, before he could, Alex put him down. He sighed.

“Do you ever get the feeling that something’s about to go wrong?” Alex asked.

“I guess?” John said slowly.

“Like, every time my life is going good for a while, something bad happens to bring it back down,” Alex trailed off. John put the chip bag down and looked at his boyfriend with concern. “It’s just a matter of when…” John didn’t know what to say. He lifted Alex up, bridal style. “Wha-? John!”

“No sadness here,” John said, walking over to the living room.

“Oh my God- Put me down!” Alex laughed. John faked dropping him, Alex yelped, and clung to him.

“‘Put me down’,” John mocked.

“That doesn’t mean drop me!” John crashed onto the couch.

“Well, nothing bad’s happened yet,” John said, still holding Alex, “So enjoy the good, for now.”

“You sound like a tumblr positivity post,” Alex criticized. John laughed and kissed his nose. “Dork.”

“Nerd. Where’s the remote?”

Meanwhile, Thomas was typing away on his couch, James Madison watching tv next to him.

“You know,” James said, “Alex isn’t that bad. We’ve worked on a project together.”

“Well, I got paid to write this, besides, I love drama,” Thomas smiled.

“Wow, that sounds like real life foreshadowing,” James said, clicking some buttons on the remote.

“Whatever, dude,” Thomas rolled his eyes, “How much damage can a gossip article do? I bet it’ll blow over in a week or two.”

“Maybe,” James said, “Maybe not.”

“I’ve written too much to scrap this now, James,” Thomas said curtly.

“Just sayn’. It sounds dangerous.”

“‘Dangerous’ is a little strong, ain’t it?” Thomas hit enter and kept going. “I’m not sure this’ll be too good for Maria, though. It’s weird that her boyfriend is telling me to write this about her.”

“Maybe he’s going to break up with her,” James shrugged.

“Mm. She doesn’t seem too happy with him,” Thomas said.

“How would you know?”

“James,” Thomas looked up briefly, “I love drama. I have eyes and ears everywhere.”

“You do talk with a lot of people,” James admitted.

“I like to know what’s going on. I’m nosy.”

“That could get you into some trouble some day, dude.” Thomas shrugged.

“Maybe,” he repeated, “Maybe not.”

“Ha ha,” James said, fake laugh dripping with sarcasm, “Don’t come crying to me if you get into some shit, though.”

“I won’t. You worry too much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry its late! I was a little too busy!!


	13. Burn.

“Alex what is this?!” John asked through his laughter.

“What?” Alex asked, sheepishly.

“‘Tell Adams to stay home, because he can do the same amount of work from there’!” John wheezed, “‘Sit down John, you motherfucker!’ I can’t Alex, you’re killing me, here!” John hunched over, “I can’t fuckn’ breath!”

“I was angry.”

“Hold on, I have to watch it again,” John said, hitting replay on the youtube video.

“Dude, are you serious?” Alex asked.

“Of course I am,” John smirked, “This is the best election ever. No doubt Adams is out now.”

“That was sort of the point, John,” Alex stated.

“Just you, Jefferson, and Burr are left, I think.” He snorted, “The sophomore showdown.” Alex laughed. “Eliza’s gonna be passive aggressive.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t punch anybody.”

“Yet.” Alex rolled his eyes.

“Hello, Hamilbitch!” Thomas beamed as he passed.

“Ah, Jeffershit, can I help you with something?” Alex replied monotonously.

“Loved your video, nice to know you really have a control over that temper of yours,” he sneered with a smile.

“Hm, interesting, I seem to recall you starting the insults at the debate,” Alex said in a fake syrupy voice.

“Well, only because you made that ridiculous claim,” Thomas retorted, “Fine, let’s compromise. Just don’t go off on me like Adams, and I’ll wait for you to start things, unless you deserve it.”

“Whatever, just mind your buisness,” Alex scoffed. Thomas strolled away.

“He seems,” John searched for words, “More confident than usual.”

“Well his ego is the size of the sun, so, could be,” Alex shrugged.

“And you seem more stressed lately,” John said, “Remember not to work yourself to death, Al.”

“I’ll try to keep it in mind,” he smiled. The two walked off to class.

Aaron slammed his hand onto the table in front of Alexander. He looked up from his food. “Yes?” Aaron held up the student paper, where Alex had slammed Aaron. “Oh.”

“I am slow to anger,” Burr began, “But, this is where you’re getting to me. The only times when I’ve doubted my chances of success, it had to do with you.”

“I’m not the reason no one trusts you,” Alex chuckled, “It’s true that nobody knows what you stand for. Everything you say is vague.” Aaron glared at Alexander for a moment. He snapped the paper back and trudged away. Not yet.

“What was that about?” Eliza asked.

“I just pointed out that nobody knows where he stands on virtually every issue,” Alex explained, “It’s like he’s answering different questions than the paper’s asking.”

“A true politician,” John laughed.

“Alex is right, though,” Eliza said, “Can you even tell me if he’s a republican or a democrat?” John thought.

“Not really.”

“Exactly!” Alex claimed, “I don’t want somebody like that in charge of the student council.”

“Alex,” Laf deadpanned, “It’s the student council. You’re not running for actual presidency.”

“It’s personal now, though,” Alex clenched his fist dramatically.

“Whatever, dude,” Peggy said, scrolling on her phone, “Whatever rocks your socks.”

“I want to see Thomas suffer,” Alex said, also dramatically.

“Calm down, hun” Eliza laughed.

“I will not, I’ve officially declared war on Thomas Jefferson,” Alex smiled, “Maybe challenging him to a duel would be more realistic.”

“I call being your second,” John raised his hand.

Laf whispered, “Don’t encourage him.”

“I feel like our school takes things too seriously,” Eliza muttered to Angelica, who merely shrugged. Alex laughed and continued eating. He started to get lost in thought.

Today was the day he was going to submit the article he’d written with Maria’s help. As soon as he got home from school. For some reason, he was nervous. What if this started a lot of drama, his name is right there as the author. Hopefully he wasn’t going to get sucked into anything he didn’t want to be a part of.

If he did, it could damage his chances of being president, as well as many other things. He just had to hit the submit button and hope for the best. Really, he should be worrying for Maria. She has more to lose than him, probably. He shrugged it off, and as soon as he got home, hit submit.

Thomas, however, had also planned to submit his opposing article that same day. His cursor was just over the button. All he had to do was click.

What if this started even more drama? His name was plastered right there! If drama went down, he might go down with it. But, James had offered him what he couldn’t refuse: money. He sighed and clicked that little, red button.

Mere hours later, the students that ran the paper posted both articles, knowing that they contradicted each other. They were uploaded to their site, and links to it began to be sent to other students immediately. Within another hour, half the sophomores and many kids of the other grades knew about it and were posting about it. Other students would ask about the posts and then they’d read it. Eventually, it reached people Alex knew directly.

Eliza and John laughed at Eliza’s cat. John had a toy jingling in his hand, and the cat enthusiastically swatted at it. Being November, it was starting to get cold, and Eliza had her fireplace lit. Pictures of her family and friends littered the shelf above it. Among other pictures, there was one of Alexander, Eliza, and John all smiling.

“Hold on, someone texted me,” she said. On her homescreen was three messages. “Have you read this?” “I’ll send the link” and then, said link. She hummed in confusion, “Looks like the school paper published a new article or something.

“Oh yeah, someone texted me about it, I haven’t read it yet-” he looked at his own phone and paused. “Maybe… I should.” His phone was blown up from Lafayette and Hercules. “I’m going to read it.”

“Me, too,” Eliza said. The school had posted Thomas’ article first.

Their hearts dropped as they read it. As their eyes scanned, they began to sting and tears threatened them. The cozy heat from the fireplace was ripped away by the numbing cold the further they read. He did what? There’s now way… He did seem to have more work than reasonable to do over break… Maybe… Maybe he wasn’t doing work. Eliza froze, sadness hitting her first like a hurricane. However, wrath, not unlike a hurricane, surged through John. He immediately grabbed the framed picture of them and Alex. Utter rage coursed through his veins and John launched the frame into the wall. Shattering glass pierced their ears and the remains fell to the ground. John stared blankly, tears falling from his eyes.

“I can get you a new frame,” was all he could say. He pulled his hoodie over his face and crashed onto the couch, stifling his sobs. He had trusted Alex. How could he? Didn’t they mean something to him? How could he cheat?

John peeked up at a clicking noise. His eyes widened at the sight of the picture in Eliza’s hand, and a lighter the had used for the fire in another. The corner of the picture was burning, and she dropped it into the fire, they watched in silence as it burned. John saw her hands shaking on her lap. He heard her sniffle. “Eliza-” She burst into tears and with that, John couldn’t hold it in anymore, either. Eliza stood up and met John on the couch. They clung to one another, wracked with sobs.

“How c-could he?” Eliza stammered, “I-I…”

“I know.” They sat there, embracing each other for what seemed like an eternity. Then, the anger started to build in Eliza. She pulled out her phone. “What are you doing?” She didn’t respond. John watched as she deleted anything having to do with Alex on absolutely every social media account that she owned.

“Everybody can wonder how I reacted,” she finished, locking and tossing her phone away. She leaned back into John and they laid there. John knew just then the amount Alex had fucked up beyond complete repair.

They had gotten so caught up in Thomas’ article, that they hadn’t even bothered with Alex’s. Thomas’ article proved to be more popular with the other students, as well.

Alexander Hamilton will burn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Smiles)


	14. Backlash

Alex’s phone buzzed. He was walking to school, the air was getting colder and he had those gloves with the touch screen fabric parts. He took his phone from his pocket to see a text from Angelica that read, “Congratulations. You have single handedly invented a new kind of stupid, Alexander.” His walking slowed, confused. Maybe the school had edited his article or something, since that’s the only thing that could possibly have angered her.

Alex opened the paper on the school’s site and quickly transitioned from confused to mortified. They’d passed it off as some sort of Thomas vs Alexander thing. Oh no. This was bad. If Angelica believed Thomas, she couldn’t be the only one.

Alex suddenly really didn’t want to go to school.

He carefully walked onto the property. Students turned to him and whispered. They stared. He’d almost made it all the way to through the doors when a student spit out, “Whore!” After him. He halted, hand on the door, and his stomach churned. He didn’t look to see who it was. With a heavy heart, he walked inside. Anybody he walked by would stop talking and glare. Surely not everybody was against him.

Maybe Eliza or John believed his side of the story, they were always by his side. He went over to his locker and saw John. “Hey-” John’s locker slammed shut, Alex jumped. John said nothing, which stung more than anything he could have said. His silence spoke a million words on which article he had believed. John spun on his heel and marched away. Surrounding students waited for his reaction.

His eyebrows furrowed and he speed walked over to Eliza’s locker. There she stood, in John’s hoodie and a ponytail, obviously exhausted. She had been there for him since the very first time they met, certainly She was on his side. “Betsey?” Unlike John’s snappy response. She simply slowly shut her locker, and turned to walk to class. She didn’t even look at him.

Whispers rang in his ears, one student “oooooo”-ed. Alexander stood, rooted in his spot, hands clenched.

“There you are, Hamilton!” Thomas said in his normal, bubbly tone, “I’ve seem the tags ‘TeamThomas’ and ‘TeamAlexander’ pop up! Isn’t that great? These articles seem to be really raising my chances, huh! I guess it really matters what article you read first, right, Hamilton?” Alex didn’t respond, didn’t even acknowledge Thomas’s existence. Thomas’ smile faltered, but didn’t disappear. He walked to stand in front of Alex and waved in his face. “Earth to Hamilton?” At the mention of the planet that he and Eliza had dubbed John. Alex bit his lip and shoved Thomas aside. Thomas stared at Alex as he fled in utter confusion.

Was Hamilton… Crying?

Instead of fleeing to the bathroom, where he’d be found, he sped to the basement and sat under the stairs, he hugged his knees. That couldn’t have happened. There’s no way. No way in hell! God damn Thomas Jefferson! He’s leaped over the line of annoying to evil! Alex rested his head on his knees and covered it with his arms. He didn’t care if he missed classes. He wanted to run home. He didn’t care, anywhere but school. Wherever Jefferson and Reynolds weren’t.

He was alone.

After what felt like hours, Alex stood up and left the school. As he was leaving, a member of the student paper saw him and immediately took his chance. “Hey Alex, now that there’s probably no way that you’ll be president,” he chuckled, “Jefferson or Burr? It’s quite obvious that you don’t like either of them, but if you had to choose!” Alex stopped and glared at the classmate.

“Jefferson’s won already, hasn’t he?” He asked bitterly. He turned and started to walk home.

His backpack fell off his shoulders and he kicked his shoes off. Alex collapsed in his bed and drowned in the covers. He needed time to process this. He couldn’t take it.

“Hamilton?” Washington’s voice called. He looked up at the lack of an answer. He hadn’t called in sick. “Has anyone seen Alexander?”

“Well,” Thomas said, still dazed a little, “I saw him. He didn’t seem much for conversation and, uh… I have no idea where he ran to.” George was surprised by the lack of expression in Thomas’ voice, the normal sarcastic and, or teasing tones were gone. He was just confused. George would text Alex in a minute, but he kept on with roll call.

Alex scrolled through any social media he had where he followed classmates. Two thirds, maybe even more, of the school believed Thomas and Reynolds. People were posting rants and slurs and insults and it was too much. The around one third were much quieter than his opposers. He was getting texts, too. While some of them were supportive, most of them weren’t. At all.

But, he got a text from George asking where he was. Alex laughed bitterly to himself. He replied that he was at home, sulking, and shut off his phone.

Why did Reynolds do that? Had Maria said something? Did he find out something. There had to be better things to do than commission somebody to write a scandal about your girlfriend and some random ass kid. He had barely even spoken with James. Little did Alex know that Maria was blowing up his text messages with apologies. She felt absolutely horrible. This had all started because of her. James had probably found the doc on her phone or something. There’s no way she wasn’t to blame, right?

She was to terrified to speak up to the people who believed Thomas. Only one good thing came from all of this, James had broken up with her. If you read either article, it would really be surprising if he didn’t.

She wanted to contact him, maybe go over to his place, but that would just make things worse for him. She was stuck.

If Alex defended himself, nobody would believe him, he supposed. It’d look like he was victimizing himself or something. He couldn’t do anything. He was stuck.

What could possibly change anything? There’s no way James would admit to being abusive, and Thomas didn’t like Alex, so… What?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Alex :/  
> POOR MARIA!!!


	15. Resolution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter

George convinced Alex to go back to school after a few days. He was worried. Alex was distracted and wasn’t doing any work. He wasn’t talking to anyone. He was isolating himself. George had read the articles and immediately sided with Alex, because it was true. He and other teachers were working on that, they may even close down the paper for the year. Their job was supposed to be posting about the school, not the personal lives of students.

Alex went through his days at school absentminded. They all blurred together. He sat alone at lunch and didn’t talk to anyone, unless it was a teacher. He really wasn’t the same. Even Thomas was getting concerned. Alex wasn’t shooting insults at him, or anyone. If somebody antagonized him, he just accepted it and kept going. What was wrong with him?

John was irritable and quick to anger. Eliza was overly happy and pretended like nothing happened. The whole thing was a mess, and Thomas was even starting to regret writing that thing. It was false. Flat out wrong. But, damage was obviously done. Alex didn’t seem to care about anything. He wasn’t doing assignments well, or at all. He stopped paying attention in class and wouldn’t even raise his hand once.

Then, the paper made one more, final mistake. They posted an article about how Alexander supported Thomas over Burr, based on that one sentence he had jeered at a student as he’d been walking away. That Thomas has already won.

So, Aaron started to text him. Alex, not caring, typed insult after insult, finally dumping all his anger on Burr. Burr only got angrier and angrier. He drew the line and Alex had crossed over it while staring Aaron in the eyes.

Even at school, the fighting didn’t stop. In fact, Aaron was pretty much the only person Alexander said more than one or two syllables to. Things were getting petty. This was the most angry anybody had seen Burr. Then, he finally snapped.

“I won’t apologise because I’m right!” Alex yelled. Burr clenched his fists, and threw one into Alex’s face. He stumbled back, staring dumbly at Aaron. “Fine, then!” Alex swung back at Aaron. The kids started swinging and kicking at each other, surrounding students backed away, yelling, chanting, and forming a circle. Alex’s former table looked over to see the mob. Laf looked at Herc questionably and the two got up to go see if they could get a peek at the commotion.

Alex fell to the floor, gasping. Burr was surprisingly good at fighting and Alex was out of practice. Aaron kicked him in the side and Alex fully fell. Just to get the point out there, Aaron reeled back and kicked Alex as hard as he could in the temple. Aaron scoffed and marched away, pushing through students and the teachers that had just arrived to stop what was already finished.

Laf stood on a table and saw that everybody was screaming about Alex and Aaron.

Then, his breathing hitched. “He’s not moving,” Laf muttered to himself. A second of processing later, Laf repeated the statement much louder and the students around Alex quieted a moment. Everybody in the lunchroom was intrigued by this point.

“Someone call an ambulance!” Was shouted out before an uproar of screaming and shouting and shrieking. For the first time in about a week and a half, Eliza looked in Alex’s direction.

“Y-” she stuttered “You don’t think…”

“No, there’s no way,” John laughed nervously, “Where did Burr go, did you see?” She shook her head. Teachers were yelling for everybody to go finish eating at the tables outside, which took a few minutes to actually convince them. At that point, Eliza and John were panicking. Sure, they were furious, but they didn’t want Alex dead. Especially when he could… Possibly, be right. They ran outside looking for Burr.

The day was a blur of sirens, red lights, and no learning. Eliza and John had pulled up the articles and read Alex’s article to discover that it was written better than Thomas’, with quotes, and proof. It wasn’t Alex that was wrong, it was them. Eliza burst into tears and John hastily tried to comfort her along with other students that were also starting to consider Alex’s side of the story more.

George called in a sub and rushed to the hospital. He wasn’t there, but he’d heard what happened and couldn’t stop from thinking the worst.

Aaron Burr had kicked Alexander Hamilton so hard, that he was in a coma.

“Jesus Christ, are you insane!” John screamed, nails digging into Burr’s arms. Burr was surprised, too. “It wasn’t even that important!”

“How was I supposed to know it’d go that far!” Aaron yelled. John was digging into some bruises on his arm.

“You have committed a crime, Aaron!” John shoved him away. All the negativity had switched from Alex to Aaron in a day. “An actual crime all because a friend kept shit talking you!”

“It’s not like saying sorry will fix it!” Aaron yelled.

“Just..!” John scoffed, “Stay away from me, okay?” John marched away. Aaron stood alone, asking himself what he had done.

Then, there was Eliza.

Eliza threw the doors of the school open like she owned the place. She had on her normal, crescent moon necklace, along with Alex’s sun necklace. She even had his shirt on. The zippers on her boots jangled as she marched like she was given the mission to kill Wonder Woman. She rounded the corner to see Jefferson and Reynold quietly bickering. “Ah! Thomas Jefferson and James Reynolds!” She said in a cheery voice. “I have been… Looking for you.” She swiftly slammed her fist into James Reynolds face. When he stumbled and held his nose, which was now bleeding, Eliza’s smile dropped. “If you ever lie on a scale that grand ever again, I will end you.” A few students cheered for her as she walked away again. So much for no fighting.

After learning about Alexander’s condition, Thomas made a long, in depth apology post about being the person to write that thing if it got someone hurt. People were a little bitter, but he was just the messenger.

Eliza approached Maria with open arms into their group. Eliza, John, and their friends created a Maria Defence Squad and claimed that if James ever got close to her that they’d protect her. The paper was shut down for the year.

When Alexander came out of recovery, and started going back to school, he was greeted with apologies. When Thomas apologized, Alex couldn’t contain his laughter and had to lean on the wall to not fall over. After he was finished having a laugh, Alex begrudgingly accepted the apology, saying that Thomas owed him.

More importantly, he started sitting with John and Eliza again. They were the happy, sappy, puppy lovers of the school again, with the new inclusion of Maria Lewis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry if it seemed rushed, I was having a rough time :/  
> Anyway, thank you so much for the feedback! You can reach me on tumblr at elpidiahope.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> Aaaa I hope you liked it!! My tumblr is elpidiahope.tumblr.com!


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